AL, BNP want polls soon but won’t push for them yet

Shahidul Islam Chowdhury and Ofiul Hasnat ,New Age ,Dhaka


The Awami League- and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led political alliances want the military-backed interim government to hold the elections to the ninth Jatiya Sangsad within the shortest possible time but are unwilling to create any pressure on it to do so.
The top leaders of the alliances, especially of the Awami League and the BNP, decided after a number of in-house meetings since the promulgation of a state of emergency by the president on January 11 that they would ‘wait and observe the political situation’ and at the same time blame each other for the disruption in the democratic process.
‘Let the Awami League first create the pressure on the government to hold the general elections, as it was they who had launched violent programmes that led to the disruption of the democratic process,’ the BNP secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, said when talking to New Age on Friday. ‘We will give our opinion if and when we are invited to do so.’
‘As the interim government assumed the state power as per the section 58(C) of the constitution, it should not take more than 90 days to hold free and fair elections,’ the joint general secretary of the Awami League, Obaidul Kader, told New Age on Friday. ‘The polls should be held within 90 days and no excuse for extending the tenure of the interim government, in the name of protecting democracy, will be lawful.’
But a presidium member of the party from greater Faridpur told New Age on Thursday, ‘The Awami League would wait at least six months before it starts to create any pressure on the government to hold the elections.’
The presence of top leaders of the AL-led alliance at the oath-taking of the chief adviser, Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed, has been viewed as its tacit support to the interim government. It has also thanked the army at different news briefings for its role in the formation of the new government.
Leaders of the BNP-led alliance were conspicuously absent from the oath-taking ceremony. The alliance has ever since issued carefully-worded statements, signed by Mannan Bhuiyan, calling for the elections to be held and power handed over to an elected government ‘as soon as possible’.
‘It is practically impossible for the caretaker government to run about 40 ministries with only 10 advisers, even if they are very efficient,’ Mannan Bhuiyan said.
The AL presidium member was, however, critical of some advisers who have hinted that the interim government might stay in power for more than three months.
‘The people initially supported the new council of advisers, as it apparently saved the nation from an “election of conflict” planned by the BNP-Jamaat alliance,’ he said. ‘However, they will not accept any attempt by any quarter to establish autocracy for a long period of time.’
‘They (the military-backed government) have come and we will keep close watch on their activities. If they discharge their duties properly, it will be good; otherwise, the people will not accept any conspiracy,’ he said. ‘The state should be run by politicians, not by a self-selecting group.’
Although the interim government needs time to ensure an atmosphere conducive for elections, it should not take more than six months to hold the elections after reconstituting the Election Commission, updating the electoral roll, depoliticising the administration and, if possible, preparing voter identity cards, the Awami League leader said.
He insisted that the people would not accept any ‘illogical’ decision and would realise their demands by greater movement if any decision was imposed on them ‘illegally’.