BNP schemes to make next general election voter-less: Quader

Awami League (AL) General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader today said BNP is involved in conspiracies and ill efforts to make the next general election voter-less.

“The spontaneous participation of the people in recent elections, including the city corporation polls, proves that they have great interests in elections,” he said in a statement.

Quader said even though BNP and its allies did not participate in those elections, the voter turnout was over 50 percent.

The country’s people have turned away from BNP and the party has lost public support, he added.

The BNP is isolated from the people and is afraid of facing them, and that is why the BNP leaders are involved in multifaceted conspiracies and evil efforts to make the general election voter-less, the AL general secretary said, adding that BNP is carrying out propaganda about the election in fear of their poor public support.

He said as the country’s people do not trust BNP, none of their plans will succeed.

Assuring that the upcoming parliamentary polls will be held in a free, fair and peaceful manner with spontaneous participation of voters, Quader said the government could be changed through people’s mandate.

He said BNP is the founder of voter-less election in this country, while military dictator Ziaur Rahman tried to get constitutional legitimacy by holding a so-called “Yes-No” vote and following his footprints, his wife Begum Khaleda Zia organised an election of farce without voters on February 15, 1996.

During the BNP regimes, the Election Commission (EC) had no ability to work independently and impartially as the EC was under the control of the Prime Minister’s Office, the road transport and bridges minister said.

He said the successful statesman and Bangabandhu’s daughter, Sheikh Hasina, has turned the EC into an independent entity as per the constitutional provisions and also increased the financial capacity of the commission.

“In particular, to strengthen the constitutional process, a specific law has been enacted on the formation of the EC,” he added.

Claiming that no institution was run independently during the BNP regime, the AL general secretary said the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) was a toothless tiger during its periods and the judiciary functioned following the ideology of BNP.

By appointing partisan and controversial people, he said, the BNP stigmatised the then caretaker government and the country’s democratic institutions, including the EC.

Quader said no democratic institutions were established during the BNP regimes rather the party destroyed the democratic and constitutional institutions aiming to usurp the state power.

BNP destroyed all institutions and made the state system ineffective after seizing the state power, he said.

The BNP will resume destructive politics if it comes to power again as the party traditionally has no faith in democratic system and constitutional process, the AL general secretary said.

“On the other hand, the Awami League government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has increased the capacity of all institutions apart from establishing democratic institutions,” he added. (BSS)