Staff Reporter :
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrurl Islam Alamgir on Wednesday said fair and credible election cannot be possible under the Awami League government.
“It is an established truth in Bangladesh that elections can never be fair, free, and acceptable if the Awami League government remains in power,” Mirza Fakhrul said while addressing the biennial general meeting of a faction of Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) at the National Press Club.
The BNP leader said that people here can never express their opinions and exercise their right to franchise freely under this government.
He also said that if the election was not participatory, it would not be accepted as per the country’s constitution.
Mirza Fakhrul accused the government of snatching the people’s freedom of expression and voting rights to cement its power. He said, “It was now recognised in the entire world that there was no place for independent journalism in Bangladesh.”
As Bangladesh was now completely in the hands of an authoritarian ruler, the freedom of the press, the main pillar of democracy, had been regulated here by the regime to meet their needs, he added.
“In the whole world those who believed in a free press, democracy, and freedom of expressing dissenting opinions, were all saying in one sentence that there was no democracy, free press, or freedom of media in Bangladesh as the government did not have the mindset to tolerant different opinions,” he said.
He accused the government of hampering the people’s freedom of expression, the right to vote and the right to live by applying excessive force with the aim of establishing a one-party rule and perpetuating their power.
DUJ President Kader Gani Chowdhury presided over the meeting. Jamaat-e-Islami Assistant Secretary General Moulana Abdul Halim, Journalists leader Ruhul Amin Gazi, Abdul Hye Shikder, Shah Newaz Ali, MA Aziz, Kamal Uddin Sabuj, Abdal Ahmed, M Abdullah, and Shahidul Islam, among others were peresent.
Jamaat-e-Islami Assistant Secretary General Moulana Abdul Halim said that this government must go before the national polls and the next election will be held under a care taker government.
