Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed on Friday said people have voted for BNP-backed candidates in the upazila parishad elections with the hopes that it will get relaxed and be happy, and thus shun violence on the streets.
“People expect the party to start forgetting the remorse for their decision not to participate in the parliamentary polls… so as to ensure that they don’t take to the streets to create further violence,” he commented about the results of the multi-phased upazila parishad elections while addressing a roundtable discussion.
The roundtable discussion, titled ‘Post-election Challenges of Politics and Constitution’, was organised by Rastrabigyan Samity at the Jatiya Press Club.
The Commerce Minister also noted that candidates backed by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami have won in some upazilas because of strong BNP-Jamaat collaboration in those constituencies.
“BNP fielded weak candidates in the constituencies where Jamaat candidates have won,” he said.
Tofail, however, stressed that the results of the upazila parishad election do not have any relation with the popularity of the current government.
Factors other than political ideologies are always involved in local government polls, including the upazila parishad elections and union parishad elections, he added.
Besides, BNP-blessed candidates won in most of the constituencies in Barishal, Khulna and Rajshahi districts which are historically losing grounds of Awami League candidates, he said.
Moderated by Prof Khurshida Begum of Government and Politics Department of Jahangirnagar University, the roundtable discussion was also addressed by Dhaka University Vice Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique, Bangladesh Economic Association President Prof Abul Barkat, Rastrabigyan Samity President Prof Giasuddin Mollah and AL President’s media adviser Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury.
Source: UNB Connect
