BNP senior leader Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury on Saturday warned the government that it won’t be easy to hold a lopsided election this time.

"An Election Commissioner has said this (Saturday) morning that the election will be held in the first week of January and they’ve started working on it. Whose election is it?” he said.

Also read: BNP takes out massive rally marking founding anniversary

Speaking at a discussion, the BNP leader said the Election Commission is going to hold the election of a party not that of the people of Bangladesh. “They think people are stupid. It’s not that easy to hold the election only by announcing a schedule.”

Ganatantra Forum arranged the programme titled 'Justice, Democracy and Human Rights in the Current Context' at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity (DRU).

Also read: BNP, like-minded parties set to observe sit-in in all cities, districts on Saturday

Earlier in the day, Election Commissioner Anisur Rahman said the next national elections will be held in the first week of January.

Khosru, a BNP standing committee member, alleged that the current illegitimate and unelected government is not able to approach the people because of fear of facing wrath while it can’t go to fair polls because of fear of the BNP.

Also read: Over 100 BNP leaders, activists sued over clash with police in Magura

“They’re using all (state apparatus) to implement their project of stealing votes by keeping people out (of the electoral process.) But it won’t happen since the people have decided not to retreat this time. After the liberation war, they have now been on the biggest struggle and their victory is certain,” he said.

The BNP leader said lakhs of people of Bangladesh have taken to the streets to get back their voting rights and all democratic, political and constitutional rights.

He said people are eagerly waiting to see a change in the government as the misrule of the Awami government has become unbearable. “Many people are not able to eat two meals a day while many others are taking loans and living on vegetables leaving fish and meat. Many are not able to ensure treatment for their families. Boys and girls can't read and write."

Khosru said the ruling party has completely broken the structure of the economy of Bangladesh through plundering in the name of mega projects and development. “The banks have got depleted as the money has been taken out of the banks by looting and in the name of mega projects.”

Citing a report of Global Financial Integrity, the BNP leader said Bangladesh lost around $7-8 billion on average every year since 2009. “In other words, about one hundred billion dollars have been siphoned off abroad over the last 14/15 years.”

“They (govt) have destroyed the country's economy through looting. I named it the Awami Model of Economics its main function is to loot public money. They’ll loot by taking loans and common people will have to repay the money," he observed.