A senior Awami League leader has said HM Ershad will join the national election, despite having asked his Jatiya Party ministers in the all-party cabinet to quit their posts.
“Ershad is and will be with the polls and will help the process of handing over power through polls,” Awami League Advisory Council member Suranjit Sengupta said on Friday.
The Jatiya Party Chairman announced his boycott of the 10th parliamentary election on Tuesday, a day after his party candidates filed their nominations.
He also asked seven ministers and state ministers of his party in the all-party interim government to resign on Wednesday.
On Thursday, four of them handed in their resignations to the party chief, who said he would forward them to the President later.
When asked if the Jatiya Party ministers were resigning after all, the Awami League leader said, “The people are not fools.” They know, he said, the tactics politicians adopt when they threaten to resign without meaning to do so.
Suranjit explained that a minister cannot resign by tendering his/her resignation to the President. The Constitution, he said, did not have such a provision.
As per the Constitution, ministers wishing quit, must hand in their resignations to the Prime Minister, who alone can forward them to the President.
In a bit of jest, Suranjit likened the Jatiya Party move to seeking mangoes in blackberry groves or medicines in a fish market.
“He (Ershad) said he would go to the President’s place. He has a right to go there,” Suranjit added.
The Awami League leader flayed the Opposition blockade. “I don’t see any logic in announcing the programme after the launch of electoral process.”
He said the Opposition would be held responsible for so many deaths across the country in the name of a political movement.
Source: Bd news24
