Last update on: Wed Aug 6, 2025 07:33 AM
The BNP yesterday welcomed the chief adviser’s announcement to hold the national election in February, while Jamaat-e-Islami and the National Citizen Party refrained from issuing any official statement.
Leaders of Jamaat and NCP said they had held internal discussions on the Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus’s speech regarding the election timeline and would announce their formal stance soon.
Meanwhile, five political parties — BNP, Nagorik Oikya, Ganosamhati Andolon, Islami Andolan Bangladesh, and the Amar Bangladesh Party (AB Party) — said the announcement would dispel doubts surrounding the election. They urged the government to ensure an environment conducive to holding free and fair polls.
BNP said the chief adviser’s announcement would help restore political stability.
“Through this announcement, the doubts many people had about the election are gone,” BNP Standing Committee member Salahuddin Ahmed told reporters in front of the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office.
He said the announcement would help create an election-oriented environment and expressed hope that the EC would soon declare the schedule.
Urging people to prepare for the election, the BNP leader expressed hope that the polls would be free, fair, neutral, and among the most admired in the world.
On June 13, following a meeting between BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman and Prof Yunus, the government had said the election could be held in mid-February.
After the meeting, BNP also called on the interim government to formally inform the Election Commission of the decision to hold the polls in February.
Nagorik Oikya President Mahmudur Rahman Manna said, “I am very happy with it [the announcement]. Many people had doubts about the election. A lot of that uncertainty was removed today.”
“The tensions among political parties will also ease now,” he told this newspaper.
Ganosamhati Andolon welcomed the “reasonable and timely” announcement, saying the time had come to focus on justice, reforms, public safety, and creating a proper election environment.
“Now, the challenge for this government is to hold the upcoming election in a free, fair, and acceptable manner, so that a democratic system can be established in the country through the direct participation of the people,” said Ganosamhati’s Chief Coordinator Zonayed Saki.
The AB Party also hailed the announcement and reiterated its demand for a fair electoral environment.
Islami Andolan Bangladesh’s Publicity Secretary Sheikh Fazlul Karim Maruf said the government must now ensure that the administration and police act neutrally during the election.
“We will announce our formal reaction tomorrow [today],” he added.
Jamaat-e-Islami’s Assistant Secretary General Ahsanul Mahboob Zubair said the party’s executive council convened yesterday to discuss the chief adviser’s speech.
“We will come up with a formal reaction tomorrow [today],” he told The Daily Star last night.
Mushfiq Us Salehin, joint member secretary (media) of the National Citizen Party, said the party would announce its stance after internal discussions.
