Shawdesh Desk:

Five lawmakers of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Sunday submitted their letters of resignation from the parliament to speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury.

The BNP lawmakers submitted letters of resignation from the parliament to the speaker at the parliament secretariat on Sunday, a day after announcement or their resignation at the party’s divisional rally in Dhaka on Saturday.

BNP lawmaker Rumeen Farhana told New Age that five of seven BNP lawmakers went to the parliament secretariat and submitted their resignation letters.

Besides Rumeen, the BNP lawmakers who submitted resignation letters in person are Golam Mohammad Sirajul Islam of Bogura-6, Md Aminul Islam of Chapainawabganj-2, Md Mosharraf Hossain of Bogura-4, and Zahidur Rahman of Thakurgaon-3.

As Md Harunur Rashid of Chapainawabganj-3 is now staying abroad and Abdus Sattar of Brahmanbaria-2 is sick now, they could not came to the parliament to submit their resignation letters in person, said Rumeen.

Siraj on Saturday said that they mentioned in their resignation letters that they resigned protesting at the ‘autocratic role’ of the government and snatching people’s rights in various ways.

‘We have decided to resign from the parliament under no influence as it is also our party decision,’ he said.

The BNP earlier asked the lawmakers to resign from the parliament and, at the December 10 Dhaka divisional mass rally, announced a 10-point charter of demands, including that for the dissolution of the parliament.

In the Dhaka rally, the BNP announced that it would launch a simultaneous movement with other parties against the government and for their demands.

The Awami League has been in power since 2009.

The ruling party and the government have been refusing to accept the BNP’s main demand — creating a provision for an election-time neutral caretaker administration to oversee the next elections, including the coming one in December 2023 or January 2024.

The two general elections since 2009, when the Awami League returned to power, have been controversial.

In 2014, opposition parties boycotted the polls in protest of the AL government’s decision to repeal the existing provision for a non-partisan caretaker government that was incorporated in the constitution as a safeguard for free and fair elections.

By taking advantage of the boycott, the Awami League remained in power.

In 2018, opposition parties reversed their course to participate in the election, but the AL-led coalition secured 96 per cent of the JS seats and more than 80 per cent of the votes cast amid widespread allegations of rigging and violence.