BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Monday accused Awami League of committing a “grievous crime” by changing Bangladesh’s democratic structure for establishing the one-party rule.

“Awami League is changing the structure of the entire state by betraying people to establish a one-party system of governance. It’s a grave offence as they’ve started drastically changing the democratic character of the state that we had defined through the 1971 Liberation War,” he said.

Speaking at a virtual discussion programme, the BNP leader said, “It’s unfortunate that the judiciary and the Election Commission have played a big role in changing the character of the state.”

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Bangladesh Nationalist Research and Communications (BNRC) arranged the virtual event protesting the government’s move to shift the services related to National Identity (NID) cards from the Election Commission to the Home Ministry.

Fakhrul said a political solution is necessary through united steps for restoring Bangladesh’s democratic structure. "The people of Bangladesh now have no alternative to removing the current horrible fascist regime and establishing a pro-people government.”

He called upon all the democratic political forces to get united to ‘restore’ democracy and people’s rights in the country through a mass upsurge.

BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said the government is trying to shift the NID service to the Home Ministry as part of it's ‘evil motive’ to usurper power again in the next general election depriving people of their voting rights.

“It’s surely a violation of the constitution and an onslaught on the main structure of the constitution,” he observed.

The BNP leader fears that the government will apply a new technique for manipulating the voting system in the next polls using the NID service after taking it under the Home Ministry.

Under the circumstances, he said, political parties in Bangladesh have no choice but to wage a strong movement to unset the current ‘autocratic’ government.

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BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, standing committee members Jamiruddin Sircar, Mirza Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan, Nazrul Islam Khan, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, Selima Rahman and Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, among others, spoke at the programme.