Shawdesh Desk:

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party said on Friday that a free and fair upazila parishad election was not possible under the incumbent ‘vote rigger’ government in the country.

BNP senior joint secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi came up with the remarks while addressing a press briefing at the party’s Naya Paltan central office in Dhaka.

Rizvi urged the party leaders to boycott the elections to be held in phases, starting on May 8.

Mentioning that 95 per cent of people boycotted the January 7 ‘dummy election,’ Rizvi said that the situation had not improved yet.

Warning the party people about joining the upazila election, Rizvi said that the BNP would take action if any party people participated in it.

Rizvi said that with the open support of a neighbouring country, a one-man dictatorship had been established in the country after the ‘dummy’ parliamentary elections on January 7.

The people of the country are now in a deep crisis where the voting rights of freedom-loving democratic people are in danger, he added.

Terming the present situation as ‘terrible,’ he urged every member of his party to unite and protest against Sheikh Hasina’s ‘dictatorship’ and ‘vote robbery’ by boycotting the upazila elections.

Criticising the government, Rizvi said that voting rights, human rights, and freedom of speech had been denied in the country.

The government has not only destroyed all the state institutions, politics, economy, and social values but has also indulged in the practices of destroying the country’s culture and education system in order to create a kneeling generation, Rizvi said.

Earlier in the day, Rizvi, at a drinking water and saline distribution programme arranged by Turag Thana BNP, said that the government would not retain power by submitting the key of independence and sovereignty of the country to another country.

‘Today, those who are fighting for democracy, and the right to vote, their names will be written in golden letters in history,’ he said.

In another programme, BNP chairperson’s adviser and former opposition chief whip Zainul Abedin Farroque expressed his hope that the people would wake up again to oust the government.

‘Don’t be disappointed; there is nothing to be disappointed about. In the history of the world, dictators have conspired and used the government administration to hold the opposition for a while,’ he said, addressing the programme.

He urged the government to hand over power before a situation like Sri Lanka was created in Bangladesh.