BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday said their party has no interest in the formation of Election Commission through a search committee under the current government.

“We don't have any interest in the EC formation as the electoral system has been completely ruined by the current government,” he said.

Talking to reporters at his residence in the district town, the BNP leader said the Election Commission cannot do anything if there is no polls-time neutral government in place.

He said they earlier boycotted and joined elections under the current government. “We also gave our opinions on the formation of the Election Commission through a search committee. But this government didn’t accept any of our proposals as they arranged everything in line with their plan to hold the election as per their desire.”

Read: Dhaka now a poisonous-gas chamber: BNP

“From our past experience, we now think there must have a caretaker government or a polls-time neutral government to hold a credible national election,” the BNP leader observed.

After the formation of a neutral government, he said it will constitute an acceptable election commission to hold the national election within 90 days.

Fakhrul said their party was against holding the local body polls in a partisan manner from the very beginning.

“If the local body polls are held with the symbols of political parties, it creates a division in society with limited choice for people. That’s why we’ve decided not to join the local body polls with our symbol. But we won’t obstruct if anyone from our party participates in the polls independently,” he said.

The BNP leader said their party welcomed the new political party, ‘Gono Adhikar Parishad’, formed under Dr Reza Kibria and former VP of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (Ducsu)  Nurul Haque Nur.

“We hope they will play a role in ousting the current fascistic regime and work for the restoration of democracy,” he said.

Fakhrul said they believe people will come forward to bring a change in the government through a strong movement.

As his attention was drawn to the Awami League general secretary’s comment that people do not consider BNP as an alternative to Awami League in power politics, he said, “Obaidul Quader should see his own face and that of his party in the mirror. He should also read the body language of people.”

Read: Harassment started ahead of election, alleges BNP

The BNP leader said Awami League completely deceived people by ‘usurping’ power through ‘snatching’ ballots the night before the voting day with the help of state machinery and law enforcers.

The BNP leader said the government has been following a ‘mysterious policy over the procurement of Covid vaccines.

“The government could still collect vaccines for the one-eighth of the population, but we need vaccines for 80 percent of the population. We asked them to prepare a roadmap and master plan for collection and distribution of vaccines, but the government did not do it for indulging in corruption,” he alleged.

Fakhrul said the government should intensify its efforts to collect the vaccines from the countries where the jabs are available.