The BNP will lead the 20-party alliance in the Dec 30 municipal elections.
The party’s Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told the media that the alliance partners will support each other’s candidates in the municipal polls.
“We will campaign together, we will support each other’s candidates, we will fight the Dec 30 polls together,” Fakhrul said after a meeting of the 20-party Alliance on Saturday.
He said the decision to support Jamaat-e-Islami candidates contesting as independent candidates has been left to the local units of the party.
Voting is set to take place across 234 municipalities on Dec 30, the first-ever local body polls in Bangladesh on party lines.
“The 20-party alliance considers the election as part of its movement. No previous elections [under the Awami League-led government] have been fair. But still, we are participating in this election as part of our movement to restore democracy,” said Mirza Fakhrul.
Speaking at the briefing held at the BNP chief’s Gulshan office, he said the upcoming polls were an acid test for the Election Commission (EC).
“This is a test for the Election Commission to prove its impartiality and show whether it can hold free, fair and credible elections,” said the senior BNP leader.
Mirza Fakhrul came down hard on the EC for its failure to check violation of the electoral code.
He referred to media reports about a minister holding a meeting at the residence of an Awami League mayoral candidate in Natore.
“This proves that the Commission has not been able to keep ministers from campaigning,” he said.
Source: bdnews24