Photo-collected.
Dhaka/

Mahmudur Rahman Manna, the president of Nagorika Oikya, said that the government is plotting to destroy the vote; And they are fighting for the right to vote. In 15 years, Awami League has ended the entire electoral system of the country. Now the government is saying that under domestic and foreign pressure, they will vote beautifully and fairly.

He said these things at a discussion meeting organized by the Nationalist Youth Party at the National Press Club on Thursday. On July 6, 2011, the then Chief Whip of the Opposition, Zainul Abdin Farooq, was seriously injured by the police baton in front of the Parliament House during a strike to protest against the abolition of the caretaker government system. This meeting was organized to observe that day. Zainul Abdin Farooq was sitting in the guest row at the event.

BNP Standing Committee member Selima Rahman said that the way some members of the police beat Zainul Abdin Farooq that day, they beat the parliament and democracy. This government is an anti-democratic government. If they cannot be removed, the existence of this country will be endangered.

Nurul Haque Noor, member secretary of a section of the People’s Rights Council, said, “I am telling the whole nation that neither the People’s Rights Council nor any of them will participate in the elections under Sheikh Hasina.” Still, some agents of the government are creating confusion and suspicion.

He said that Jamaat-e-Islami has been on the streets for a long time. The way many Jamaat leaders have been hanged and tortured, it does not seem that Jamaat will work with the government. If the Jamaat still works, the party workers will not forgive. Pointing out that BNP is leading the ongoing movement, Noor urged the party to give a program for the ‘one-time movement’.

BNP Joint Secretary General Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal and other leaders addressed the meeting chaired by the organization’s president Humayun Ahmed Talukdar and moderated by general secretary Sohel Rana.