'AL to lose security deposit if polls held under neutral govt'

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Monday said most of the Awami League candidates will lose their security money if the next national election is held under a neutral government.

“Awami League won’t get even 30 seats if the election is held under a caretaker or neutral government. Most AL candidates will lose their security deposit,” he said while speaking at an extended meeting of the Thakurgaon district unit BNP at his local residence.

Fakhrul said the ruling party is against the caretaker government as it knows it will face a debacle in a fair and credible election.

Stating that political parties in Bangladesh do not trust each other, he said the caretaker government is the only solution in the current culture of Bangladesh’s politics to overcome the political crisis and have a fair and inclusive election.

The BNP leader alleged that the government has been carrying out false campaigns and indulging in various misdeeds to divert the people’s democratic movement, demanding the restoration of the caretaker government system and rights of people and the resignation of this government, to a different direction.

He urged the government to refrain from conducting ‘false’ campaigns against BNP.

Fakhrul alleged that the government wants to retain power by holding another ‘stage-managed’ election as they have already destroyed the electoral system. “But this time it won’t happen. The country’s people have woken up and they want to exercise their right to franchise.”