Some political quarters try to thwart election

Some political quarters were deliberately raising new demands to thwart or disrupt the election, said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Wednesday.

”They were making demands unfamiliar to the people of Bangladesh, where even the concept of ‘reform’ was not widely understood.”

”A section within the government is deliberately trying to prevent pro-democracy forces from coming to power. We must stay alert and work harder,” Mirza Fakhrul said at a discussion meeting at the Jatiya Press Club, marking the 10th death anniversary of veteran politician Kazi Zafar Ahmed.

”We have formulated a 31-point programme that incorporates all the reforms. From the beginning, we supported reforms, realising that democracy cannot be established under the existing state structure. Whatever cooperation was needed for reforms, we have provided to the interim government, he added.

Fakhrul said they had not created obstacles anywhere, nor had they raised major demands to oppose the government on the streets.

Turning to proportional voting, he said, ”Explaining proportional voting will take time, it is very difficult to understand. After casting your vote, you do not know who you voted for. You think there is a popular person in your area and you vote with him in mind, but it turns out someone else is elected. This is not yet clear to us, nor to the general public. Yet they are threatening loudly with such issues.”

Questioning the motives behind such moves, he said that they were like a burnt cow, having seen that whenever change occurred, others took advantage of it. He added that the longer it took to hold elections, the more others benefited.