Bangladesh’s permanent representative at the UN has rubbished media reports of United Nations inviting Bangladeshi opposition party leaders to resolve the country’s current political stalemate.
“There has been no initiative to call up the ruling or opposition party leaders or bring them to New York to settle issues on upcoming national elections. The UN general secretary has not proposed anything to me,” AKA Momen, the UN representative told the media here on Friday.
UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon recently asked the two leaders over telephone to start a dialogue for breaking the deadlock.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is going to New York this month to attend the UN general assembly. Reports of an UN-initiative to invite BNP leaders for a meeting have been published in a section of the media.
Momen described such reports as “baseless”.
“The UN general secretary hopes that a free and fair election will be held keeping to the letter and spirit of its constitution. Six thousand polls at different levels, including those for city corporations, have been held under the current government. And none of them were marred by irregularities,” he said.
The parliament polls are due within three months after the term of the current parliament ends on Oct 25.
The 15th amendment has scrapped the caretaker system for holding the parliament poll , but the Opposition wants the system restored .
The ruling Awami league says the caretaker system was declared illegal by the court and discredited during the last caretaker regime — so there is no good reason to bring it back.
The opposition has threatened to boycott the polls if their demands are not met.
The diplomatic community has been asking the two parties to start a dialogue to resolve the impasse.
On Sept 7, US Secretary of State John Kerry wrote separate letters to the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the opposition leader Khaleda Zia suggesting a dialogue to break the deadlock.
Source: bdnews24
