Fakhrul says PM’s call for national unity out of ‘guilty conscience’

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has termed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s call for a national unity as ‘political rhetoric’ after holding a ‘rigged election’.

“I think the prime minister has made the statement out of her guilty conscience,” he told newsmen at the BNP’s Naya Paltan central office on Saturday.

In her televised speech to the nation on Friday evening, Sheikh Hasina underscored the need for a national unity to take the country forward.

“I’ve listened to her (PM’s) speech. I think, she delivered such a speech out of a guilty conscience. It seems to me that she has perhaps realised what they did (in the elections) was not a right thing. So, she’s tried to explain why the BNP performed so badly and they (AL) did so well. Though it’s her own explanation,” UNB quoted Fakhrul as saying.

The BNP leader said the local media and other people concerned are not talking about what actually happned during the 30 December election due to fear.

“But the international media and different countries through their reports have exposed those..It was not an election at all as it was a cruel mockery with the nation.”

The BNP leader said the 30 December election has badly affected the nation as the people have lost their confidence in the election process, the election commission and the state after the way the state machinery and the agencies were abused during the election.

About the prime minister’s call for joining parliament, Fakhrul said their party’s elected MPs will neither go to parliament nor take oath as they have already rejected the election results.

He said there is no reason for the people to accept it as they saw the prime minister did not live up to the promises she made during the talks with Jatiya Oikya Front leaders before the election.

“She assured us that no new arrest would be made, no fresh cases would be filed and a level-playing field would be ensured. But she couldn’t live up to any of her promises and in fact she didn’t. So, now her call for the national unity is nothing but rhetoric,” he observed.

The BNP leader also accused the Awami League of putting the entire state against the people to manipulate the election.

He said they are demanding a fresh election under a neutral government annulling the 30 December polls as the people did not endorse it. “We want a fresh election to be held so that the people can give their verdict through it.”

Sheikh Hasina delivered her address to the nation following the formation of her new government earlier this month as the Awami League secured a landslide victory in the 30 December parliamentary elections.