BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday urged his party colleagues that they must play a role in ensuring a completely neutral, free, fair and credible election, free from any manipulation of results by force.
“Tarique Rahman has done his part by bringing the election forward to early February next year. Now it is our duty to make sure the election is held in a free and fair manner so that no one can point fingers at us and say we manipulated the results by force like Awami League,” he said while addressing a discussion.
Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal, Swechchasebak Dal and Chhatra Dal jointly organised the discussion titled ‘Future Bangladesh: Expectations of Youth Society and BNP’s Plans’ at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the capital on the occasion of International Youth Day.
The BNP leader said their party must take this task seriously as it is now the biggest political party while the Awami League is no longer active in politics. “So, we have to play this role in ensuring a completely impartial, free and fair election. We have to work for it,” he said.
Fakhrul said BNP’s associate bodies, including Chhatra Dal, Jubo Dal and Swechchasebak Dal, will start working in this regard and prepare themselves.
He said if they can win the hearts of the people, bring them to their side in the election and form a government led by Tarique Rahman, they will implement their 31-point programme.
Fakhrul said there is now an opportunity to rebuild the nation and the state after removing a fascist regime through a 15-year struggle.
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“It will not be possible if we do not have proper knowledge and preparation. This is a science. We all know science is moving forward very fast, and politics and political science also change quickly,” he said.
The BNP leader said Bangladesh was liberated over 52 years ago with the dream of establishing a truly democratic country.
He said those who were supposed to establish democracy and build a democratic nation failed to do so. “They did the opposite by imposing a one-party governing system.”
Fakhrul claimed that democracy was never truly practised in Bangladesh except for a few years under BNP founder Ziaur Rahman.
Stating that the nation once fought for liberation, he said another fight is now needed to prepare the country for nation-building.
The BNP leader said a big challenge for the future government will be to provide jobs for millions of unemployed youths.
He said their party, under the leadership of Tarique Rahman, has already started working on plans to create job opportunities and engage the young generation in the country’s development.
Fakhrul alleged that some political parties are running deliberate propaganda against BNP to damage its image.
“It seems that anything bad that happens in the country is blamed on BNP. These are done intentionally to malign BNP. Since BNP is the most likely party to run the country in the future, attempts are being made to undermine it with false campaigns,” he observed.
Fakhrul said BNP needs to prepare guidelines similar to those made by its founder Ziaur Rahman during his three years in office to truly move the country forward.
“If necessary, we must go to villages, markets, hats, terminals, riverbanks, farms and ports, talk to people directly, inspire them and awaken them again. This will be our task,” he added.