The standing committee of BNP has observed that the interim government is questioning its neutrality by ignoring the opinions of the major political parties for holding the national election by December.
BNP said this following an emergency meeting of the Standing Committee of the party at Chairperson’s Gulshan Office last night, a press release of the party Saturday.
The release said, “Chief Adviser Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus in his address to the nation on Friday evening announced that the next general elections will be held any day in the first half of April in 2026. But BNP will not move from its demand for holding the polls in December next.”
“Despite talking about establishing a consensus, the Chief Adviser has announced the prospective timeframe for polls making its neutrality questionable by ignoring the opinions of majority of the political parties,”, the party said.
The decision of the interim government was taken being influenced by a particular political group, it said adding because of the decision people are rightly suspicious about the possibility of holding a free and fair elections,” BNP said.
The BNP Standing Committee meeting, chaired by Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman, reiterated its demand for elections by December next.
After reviewing the speech of the CA the BNP meeting observed that the speech went beyond the context.
“In this long speech, the CA has mentioned the issues such as ports, corridors and others which, in his own words, do not come under the ‘three mandates' of the interim government,” the press release noted.
BNP said there is a good reason for postponement of the election in the first half of April because of possible windy weather and the time falls soon after Ramadan.
“Moreover, no specific reason was mentioned in his speech as to why it is not possible to hold the elections by December,” the party said.
BNP said, people of this country are deprived of their basic voting rights for almost a decade and a half. They had to go through immense struggle to restore their voting rights including the occurrences of enforced disappearance, murder, imprisonment, injuring and torture. Although the victory was achieved through immense sacrifice of the student and common masses in July-August 2024, the unnecessary delay in the election has made people disappointed and anxious.
“So this meeting reiterates its demand to hold the election by December, taking into account Ramadan, public exams, and weather conditions and others,” said the release.
