Instead of taking a tough stance against the widespread rigging in city polls, the BNP will first try to get its detained leaders and activists released and then reorganise for a strong movement.
Moreover, in the coming days, the party will continue holding issue-based programmes to keep the morale up among the ranks instead of enforcing hartals and blockades.
In fact, the party has been thinking about being more careful about using these action programmes for prolonged periods in future because the recent spates have considerably weakened them.
BNP leaders have always said that taking part in the city polls was part of their movement strategy.
Now they think that they have not lost anything, rather the widespread rigging in city elections has put the government in an awkward position and ended up strengthening their demand for fresh national polls under non-partisan government.
Leaders said the next few months are not very conducive for holding political programmes because of the rainy season, the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan and the Eid festival.
So, they want to utilise this time to reorganise the party ranks and mobilise public opinion in favour of their prime demand – fresh national election.
Mahbubur Rahman, member of the BNP’s standing committee, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are yet to decide our strategy for the near future. We will certainly hold meetings and decide our next course of action.”
Seeking anonymity, a senior leader said the BNP will not enforce any major programmes like hartals and blockades right now fearing that public sentiment might go against them.
He also said: “We have got back the public ‘s favour. Refraining from enforcing action programmes will surely add value to our demand.”
The BNP believes that the farcical city corporation elections in Dhaka and Chittagong have backfired on the government and will put it under pressure from both in and outside the country.
Another leader said: “There was a perception within the party that the decision to boycott the January 5 [2014] national elections was wrong. Now, the city polls have proved that decision right.”
Political scientist Ataur Rahman said: “Now the people’s perception [against the vote rigging] has to be mobilised. People must be made to understand that votes will not decide election results.”
Seeking anonymity, another senior leader of BNP told the Dhaka Tribune last night: “The USA, UK and the UN have already expressed their discomfort with the elections and called for investigation. This election has proved that BNP’s decision to boycott the farcical January 5 elections was right.”
Halfway through the day’s voting, the BNP had already said they were rejecting the polls. But unofficial results published by the Election Commission showed that the fight between the BNP and Awami League-backed candidates was tight.
“When the results were published, we saw that the BNP-backed candidates have got large number of votes. This was done to mislead the grassroots leaders and activists of BNP so that they get the idea that they could have won had they not rejected the polls.”
It was nothing but an evil strategy of the government, said the leader who was closely involved with the election process.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
Facts and Solutions: 1. AL and the current EC jointly proved beyond any doubts that fair and credible election is not possible under them and Bangladesh Army must play vital role to satisfactorily conduct any election in Bangladesh. 2. It is high time for BNP to declare itself as a 100% democratic party open to all citizens and welcome every democracy-loving Bangladeshi to join the party ranks. 3. BNP may use the current quiet moment to hold it’s party councils at grassroots, district and national levels and elect leaders by 100% direct votes of primary members at all levels. 4. BNP may like to invite dignitaries and diplomats as observers at it’s national council, which must be held in the coming months. 5. From the experience of the city council election common people will stand behind BNP and the civil society in order to launch a one-point movement – “Establish True Democracy in Bangladesh”. 6. Such movement must include the demand to make necessary changes to the current constitution in order to bring the country and democracy back to its people. 7. Bangladesh Army, which showed its commitment and success in offering a clean voter list to the nation, should also be able to hold a free and fair election as caretaker government with Army Chief being the head of the caretaker government for 90 days prior to every national election. 8. This is how the patriotic Arm Forces of Bangladesh can make a vital contribution to the nation and feel proud of their existence and hence not grabbing power unconstitutionally. 9. A speedy amendment of the constitution must make room for this. 10. National dialogues should start taking place to discuss constitutional amendments in order to fix all the issues of the election system of Bangladesh to rid this nation from all these nonsense once and for all.