Jan-Rolf Janowski, chargé d’ affaires of the German embassy in Dhaka, on Wednesday met BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and discussed various issues, including Bangladesh’s next general election.
The nearly one-hour long meeting was held at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office in the afternoon.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, BNP standing committee member Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury said they talked about the next national election in the current context of Bangladesh.
‘As all the democratic countries of the world are concerned, they (Germany) also wanted to know how to make (Bangladesh’s next) election neutral, acceptable, and credible maintaining the international standard,’ he said.
The BNP leader said that the democratic countries of the world, including Germany, want a credible, acceptable, inclusive, and impartial election in Bangladesh.
‘But they’ll not tell the process (of election) in Bangladesh. They say what they want. Bangladesh has to decide what the process will be. We’ve said it’s not possible to have a credible, acceptable and participatory election with international standards without a neutral government,’ he said.
Khosru said that the country’s people also thought a credible and acceptable election was not possible in Bangladesh unless it was held under a polls-time non-party impartial government.
Replying to a question, he said that they told the German diplomat that there was no scope to go to the election in Bangladesh under Sheikh Hasina as that election would not bring anything good for the people of Bangladesh.
The BNP leader said that an election under Sheikh Hasina was nothing but a project a scheme to steal votes and retain power.
He said that they also talked about BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s health condition as the German diplomat wanted to know about it and her treatment.
‘There was a discussion on how to take forward the cooperation between Bangladesh and Germany,’ Khosru said.
Apart from Fakhrul and Khosru, BNP organising secretary Shama Obaed was also present at the meeting.
