Challenges mount as BD’s electoral landscape faces opposition exodus
Staff Reporter :
The political landscape ahead of the country’s 12th parliamentary poll on January 7 has become lopsided as the election is likely to be held without the oppositions, particularly Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
When the ruling Awami League and its alliances are scurrying for collecting AL’s nominations ranging from bureaucrats, teachers, journalists, cricket players, actors and so on, most of top-notch BNP leaders including its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir are languishing behind bars with various charges.
Protesting the Election Commission’s move for the announcement of election schedule, the opposition political parties, including BNP have been carrying on intermittent blockade and Hartal programmes.
On Monday, BNP has freshly announced nationwide 48-hour blockade programme for Wednesday and Thursday in a bid to re-establishing democracy and realising resignation of the government.
BNP’s Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi announced the programme during a virtual press briefing on Monday afternoon just before the ending of the 48-hour hartal.
“Defying free and fair election, the ruling clique wants to exterminate its political opponents. The government has made arrangement for one-sided election again. And the EC is following the government’s footprints,” he said.
“EC said they would not reshuffle the administration already arranged by the government. It will be an uncontested, one party BAKSAL-style election,” he added.
Amid the BNP’s ongoing programme, thousands of BNP leaders and workers are currently now behind bars and failing to obtain bails.
BNP alleged that the law enforcers are carrying out countrywide drives to nab or intimidate their party workers and leaders ahead of the election.
Rizvi in the virtual press briefing said, “During the last 24-hour, a total of 480 BNP leaders and workers have been arrested from across the country and 17 cases filed against them. In these cases, the total number of accused is over a thousand.”
In addition, on Monday, a hearing was on schedule for BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in the lower court, but it had not been taken place on the ground of the illness of the Public Prosecutor Abdullah Abu.
Apart from this, a Dhaka court on Monday sentenced 49 BNP leaders and workers, including BNP’s Joint Secretary General Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel for different terms under various cases.
The opposition political parties had repeatedly urged the Election Commission to refrain from the announcement of poll schedule, as they said that the political landscape was not ready for holding a free, fair and inclusive election.
When the purchase of nomination from the Awami League and the Jatiya Party are going on, a four-member Commonwealth election observer team is currently assessing the election environment.
They had already met the Election Commission on Sunday and inquired of the election laws and other issues.
After assessing the whole pre-election scenario, they would submit a report to the Commonwealth secretary general with recommendations to decide on the next steps, Linford Andrews, adviser and head of the Electoral Support Governance and Peace Directorate of the Commonwealth told the journalists after the meeting with EC.
The team will leave Dhaka on October 22 while the Foreign Ministry on last Thursday said that a four-member election observer from the European Union would arrive in Dhaka soon.
The European Union, United States and some other like-minded countries echoed that they want to see a free, fair and peaceful election.
