People calling Dec-30 election a drama: Dr Kamal

People calling Dec-30 election a drama: Dr Kamal

Claiming that the Constitution was violated through ‘depriving’ the country’s 16 crore people of their rights in the December-30 election, Jatiya Oikyafront Convener Dr Kamal Hossain on Tuesday said the people will not accept it in any way.

While speaking at a commemorative meeting on Rashid Suhrawardy, son of former Prime Minister of erstwhile Pakistan Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, organised by his party Gono Forum at the Jatiya Press Club, he also said they will do whatever is needed in this regard.

Rashid Suhrawardy died in London on February 7 last.

Describing democracy as the main principle of the Constitution, Dr Kamal said the country’s people had struggled for it. “But people are calling what happened on December 30 a farce and a drama. This can be called cheating with people. It’s pity!”

Apparently referring to Prime Minister’s comments made on the following day of the election that they had come to power for another five years, he said, “We think the country’s 16 crore people were disrespected through the assumption of power snatching their rights.

Speaking at the programme, JSD president ASM Abdur Rob said people were insulted and ignored during the December-30 election. “The voting right of people was snatched by stuffing ballots the night before the voting.”

He alleged that thousands of opposition leaders and activists have been in jail in ‘false and fictitious’ cases as there is no rule of law in the country.

Under the current circumstances, Rob urged all to get united to wage a strong movement to restore democracy and people’s voting rights.

Former caretaker government adviser Barrister Mainul Hosein, who was released from jail recently, said it is shameful that the country’s people were deprived of their voting rights by bureaucrats and law enforcers, who are their servants.

“We’re now in such a political situation that we can’t protect our own rights. Politics has now become a means of business and making money. There’s now no ideology and morality in politics,” he observed.

BNP standing committee member Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan said it is now necessary to create a congenial political and democratic atmosphere in the country upholding the spirit of the Liberation War. “We must create an atmosphere so that politicians can respect each other forgetting the politics of vengeance.”

Gono Forum general secretary Mostafa Mohsin Montu, executive president Subrata Chowdhury and Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury, among others, addressed the programme.

At the beginning of the programme, a one-minute silence was observed as a mark of respect to the memory of Rashid Suhrawardy.