Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Parliament on Saturday rejected opposition leader Khaleda Zia’s demand for restoring the caretaker government system for holding the next general elections.
“The elections will be held in Bangladesh in the manner of parliamentary system of democracies in other countries where the voting rights of the common people would remain secure,” she said, speaking on the proposed national budget for next fiscal (2013-14).
On the opposition’s strident demand for restoring the caretaker government system, Hasina said: “Those whom you wish to come would never leave if they could take power another time…it should not be forgotten that those who want to take power as the third force were the architects of the minus-2 formula.”
She added: “You’ve suffered a lot and so we as well. Everyone will have to remain alert so that the architects of the minus-2 formula could never come to power again. In democratic system, those will assume power who the people will vote for.”
The Prime Minister said all will now have to move on the path of democracy so that the democratic process continues in the country.
“If there is no democratic system, no country would gain economic uplift and move towards progress,” she said.
Claiming that the Election Commission is now independent as free and fair elections are taking place, Hasina urged the opposition to keep faith on the government. “You’ll have to keep faith, confidence and trust on people and on us,” she said.
About the proposed budget, the Prime Minister expressed her resolve to implement the budget if her party could retain power through the next general elections. She said: “Insha-Allah we’ll again assume office after being elected through people’s mandate.”
Turning to the recently held four city corporation polls in Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet where all the 14-party backed candidates lost, Hasina criticized the opposition leader’s delayed remark in Parliament today that the elections were not free and fair.
“After 11 days, she (Khaleda) suddenly woke up from sleep and came up with the observation that the elections in the four city corporation polls were not free and fair. Did her candidates win the polls through vote rigging as she knows the mechanism better? So, would she now press for holding fresh elections to these city corporations after canceling those?”
She said that despite the massive uplift works in these four city corporations, the 14-party backed candidates could not win the polls as those elections were held in a free, fair and neutral manner.
The Prime Minister mentioned that during the tenure of the present government, there were some 5,654 elections in different tiers and all were held in a free, fair and credible manner following the successful formulation of the voter ID cards.
Responding to the opposition leader’s demand that Awami League had earlier demanded introducing the caretaker government system, she said the demand was then raised because of the February 15, 1996 elections, vote rigging in Magura and Mirpur by-elections and ‘voter-less’ Dhaka-10 election in 2004 where Mosaddeq Ali Falu won.
“Such elections were held during their time, but our movement was to ensure voting rights and food for common people with support from the countrymen,” Hasina said adding that their (BNP’s) election model was “10 motorbikes, 20 hooligans and the election is finished,”
She said that her party had launched movement that time because it believed in people’s empowerment and ensuring their constitutional rights.
Referring to the maritime boundary verdict over Myanmar, the Prime Minister said if Awami League is elected in the next general elections, her government would be able to win the verdict against India as well.
Listing her government’s steps to bring discipline in the country’s economic sector, she alleged that the BNP had introduced the culture of bad debt and loan default in the country. “Tanveer Mahmud of Hall-Mark scam was affiliated with the Hawa Bhaban and Zia Parishad,” she said.
Hasina also said: “If Mosaddeq Ali Falu and (Lutfar Rahman) Badal, who are very popular to the opposition leader, are caught then it could be found where the money of the capital market has disappeared.”
She also held the BNP-Jamaat-Shibir cadres responsible for killing people by burning buses in the name of movement and setting fire on railway tracks and to bogies.
The Prime Minister also listed various achievements of the present government including in the economic sector, food production and food security, education and health, digital Bangladesh, in curbing terrorism and militancy, reducing the poverty rate to 26 percent from 41 percent, distribution of stipends, and augmenting power and gas generation.
Source: UNBConnect
