Calling for a 48-hour strike starting at 6:00 am Saturday, the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has boycotted the Sunday polls amid violence.
Claiming that the Commonwealth Secretary General’s call ahead of Sunday’s national election has “shocked the democracy-loving people of Bangladesh,” the main opposition on Saturday said her call “misses many crucial issues” and "does not reflect the ground reality" in the country.
Calling for a 48-hour strike starting at 6:00 am Saturday, the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has boycotted the Sunday polls amid violence.
The Commonwealth Secretary General (SG) Patricia Scotland KC had on Friday called on all political and civic leaders in Bangladesh “to contribute to a conducive environment for citizens to peacefully exercise their right to vote” on January 7.
Local media tally suggested violence in the run-up to the elections killed at least 15 people in the past three months since October 28 last year even as Bangladesh witnessed a couple of train-related arson incidents among several incidents of violence in recent months. The ruling Awami League party has accused the BNP of carrying out the sabotage, which the opposition party has denied.
“The SG’s call shocked the democracy-loving people of Bangladesh who have been disenfranchised by the regime over more than a decade.
"Honourable SG’s call misses many crucial issues surrounding the upcoming farcical 7 January election. The SG’s statement does not reflect the ground reality in Bangladesh,” Advocate Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, BNP’s senior joint secretary general, said in a statement.
“We believe her statement contradicts the desires and aspirations of the pro-democracy Bangladeshis who have been striving for a free, fair, inclusive, and credible election for more than a decade,” he said.
Claiming that the elections are being boycotted by all the major pro-democracy political parties in Bangladesh, the statement said: “Only the ruling party chosen dummy/independent candidates and fake oppositions with ruling party blessings are made to participate in the election.”
Following an invitation by the Bangladesh Election Commission, a Commonwealth Expert Team (CET) is part of the 100-member team of foreign observers, including three from India.
Referring to the visiting CET, Rizvi said, “The CET must also be aware of the state of terror and fear created by the regime through extreme human rights violations like extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and rampant arbitrary arrests in last three months.”
More than 27,000 opposition dissidents, including the BNP Secretary General and its top leaders, are languishing in prison upon fictitious charges, Rizvi claimed and further alleged, “Scores of people have been killed, tortured and died in police custody.”
He described the Sunday elections as a “farcical exercise” which “does not even meet the minimum qualification to be recognised or termed as an election of any standard, under the UN Declaration of Human Rights article 21 and 21 (3) or the International Covenant on political and civil rights.”
The Secretary General’s statement tends to support the renewal of the current autocratic regime, he said.
The BNP led by former prime minister Khalida Zia, who is under house arrest under graft charges, wanted an interim non-party neutral government to hold the election, a demand rejected by the government headed by Hasina, also the head of the ruling Awami League (AL).
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