Announcing schedule doesn’t mean election will be held so easily: BNP

BNP Standing Committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury has said announcing the election schedule doesn’t mean that the election will be held so easily.

He was speaking at a discussion at the Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) on Saturday (September 2).
Ganatantra Forum organised the discussion styled, “Justice, Democracy and Human Rights in Present Context”.

Responding to an Election Commissioner’s remarks that the upcoming 12th general elections would be held in the first week of January next year, Amir Khasru asked, “What’s that election about? Whose election it is? No election will be held in Bangladesh or be allowed to hold until the voting rights of people, for which they are struggling, are restored. Thousands of people have taken to the street to get their rights back. They are sacrificing their lives to get their voting, democratic, constitutional, and political rights back.”

Referring to the partial opening of Dhaka Elevated Expressway, Amir Khasru said, “They’re inaugurated yet another structure today. This is one of the characteristics of autocracy. They would indulge in corruption, looting and siphoning of money in one hand, while four to five such structures would be built to show the so-called development. Mega projects are being undertaken for committing mega-corruption. The government has completely broken down the economic structure of the country in the name of such fake development. There is no liquidity in banks. They have laundered billions of taka abroad. They have siphoned of billions of taka of large projects. Now, the government is printing money worth Tk 1 lakh crore. Banks’ liquidity is finished, reserves are finished, and the government’s coffer is empty.”

BNP vice-chairman Nitai Roy Chowdhury, Gazipur District BNP president Fazlul Huq Milon, BNP central executive committee member Abu Naser Muhammad Rahmatullah also spoke at the discussion.