BNP wants election roadmap, new EC based on political consensus

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam speaks to journalists after attending a dialogue with Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at the state guesthouse ‘Jamuna’ on Saturday (October 5) afternoon

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Saturday called upon the Chief Adviser to interim government, Prof Muhammad Yunus, to announce a roadmap of the election along with the formation of a new election commission based on the consensus of major political parties.

‘A new Election Commission will have to be formed immediately based on the consensus of major political parties suspending the Election Commission Appointment Act. We have asked to give a roadmap when the election commission will hold the election,’ BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said while talking to reporters after a dialogue with the Chief Adviser.

He said they placed a number of proposals before the interim government seeking urgent steps to address their concerns, including former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s stay in India.

Fakhrul said they drew the interim government’s attention to Hasina’s activities from India and urged the government to discuss the matter with the Indian government.

The BNP secretary general led a six-member party delegation at the talks to discuss reform and other relevant issues, including the current political situation.

BNP standing committee members Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Mirza Abbas, Nazrul Islam Khan, Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan and Salahuddin Ahmed were among the members of the BNP delegation.

BNP was the first party to join the dialogue with political parties at the invitation of the Chief Adviser on Saturday.

After an hour-long meeting, the Chief Adviser sat with Jamaat-e-Islami led by its Ameer Dr Shafiqur Rahman.

‘We have told the chief adviser that no controversial person should go to the Election Reform Commission. We have asked to cancel all the Union Parishads elected by fake votes of the fascist government. We have asked to bring the chief election commissioners and commissioners who were with them in 2014, 2018 and 2024 under the law on charges of fake, failed and biased elections,’ said the BNP leader.

Fakhrul said, ‘He (Chief Adviser) told us that holding elections is his number one priority.’

When asked what the chief adviser said about BNP’s demands, he said they are looking at the issues with great importance. ‘They think our demands are the people’s demands, our demands are theirs too.’

BNP’s demands include removal of ‘one or two’ members of the interim government. ‘There are one or two (persons) in the interim government who are obstructing the main sprit of the interim government and the people’s uprising. We demanded their removal,’ the BNP leader said.

The party demanded legal action against former Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque, who according to Fakhrul, was the main man behind ‘destroying the electoral system and cancellation of the caretaker government system’, on charge of sedition.