AL holds talks with UN envoy, says UN wants free, fair and peaceful polls

Awami League (AL) general secretary Obaidul Quader on Thursday said, “The United Nations wants a free, fair and peaceful election in Bangladesh. However, AL wants a competitive election. The more the election will be competitive, the more it would be acceptable in home and abroad.”

The AL general secretary told journalists these after a delegation of the party held a meeting with UN resident coordinator in Dhaka Gwyn Lewis at her residence at Gulshan-2 in the city.

Other members of the delegation include AL presidium member Muhammad Faruk Khan, international affairs secretary Shammi Ahmed, information and research secretary Salim Mahmud, office secretary Biplob Barua, and central executive committee member Mohammad A Arafat.

Quader said, “AL wants big party like BNP to take part in the next general election. Why they should be forced to come to the election? It is their right to take part in the election as a political party.”
Mentioning that UN has no headache over BNP’s demand for caretaker government, Quader said, “UN has no comment about BNP’s demands for resignation of the government, dissolution of the parliament and caretaker government. They have no headache. They termed these issues as the internal matters of Bangladesh.”

He said, “Today’s discussion was little different. Development of Bangladesh and works on SDG were given importance in the discussion. They express satisfaction over massive development and progress under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.”