BNP won’t join any polls under AL govt from now on

Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) will no longer join any elections to be conducted by the current election commission and under the Awami League regime.

In that line, the party’s highest policymaking body has decided not to contest the upcoming local government elections in upazilas (sub-districts), following the ‘entirely rigged’ general elections on 30 December 2018, sources in the party said.

This decision means the party will not allow any leader to take part in the upazila elections with the party’s ‘sheaf of paddy’ symbol as they did in the previous such polls in 2014.

The BNP standing committee, at a meeting in city on Tuesday, unanimously took the decision on boycotting all elections under the AL from now on, party leaders said.

They argued that after the unprecedented rigging and manipulating in the 11th national elections, there is no rationale to contest any polls under the AL and the current EC.

“The results of the elections are pre-predetermined and the EC’s role will remain the same, so there is no justification of joining elections that only give legitimacy to the EC and this government,” a leader pointed out.

The BNP will soon convey this decision to its allies — partners of the 20-party alliance and the new coalition of the Jatiya Oikya Front.

If any BNP leaders want to contest the upazila elections, they will have to resign from the party to do so, party sources said about the decision.

The standing committee meeting, joined by BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman from London via video conference, discussed in detail the party’s next course of action, taking stock of the recent elections and costs and benefits of forming the Oikya Front.

Instead of joining the upazila elections, the main opposition party will focus on programmes demanding release of party chairperson Khaleda Zia from jail and reorganisation of the party and its front organisaions.

The BNP will hold its national council session once the tenure of the current committee expires in March, according to the decision.

A few leaders at the standing committee meeting expressed frustration about the Oikya Front’s failure to highlight the rigging in the elections as well as earlier failure to organise movement before the elections.

They said they would be watching the Front’s attitude towards the BNP’s demand for release of Khaleda Zia in the coming days.

However, the BNP secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, emphasised strengthening the alliance with the existing allies and with the Oikya Front. “There is no alternative to unity,” he told a gathering, about the BNP’s alignment.