The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has urged left-leaning political parties to join a proposed movement demanding general elections by December.
BNP leaders on Sunday held an informal meeting with the Communist Party of Bangladesh and the Socialist Party of Bangladesh at the Hotel Sarina in the capital Dhaka, where they urged the left parties to take part in a broader political movement for electoral reforms and democratic transition.
Following the meeting, former CPB president Mujahidul Islam Selim told reporters, ‘The BNP wants elections by December, and we [CPB] believe that it is possible to hold elections before that time, provided necessary reforms are completed.’
He said that those who demanded general elections before reforms were in favour of real reforms, as people’s participation and opinions were needed to make reforms stand on a solid foundation.
Those who denied this might have other motives in the name of reforms, Selim said.
CPB general secretary Ruhin Hossain Prince told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that the BNP had sought the participation of left parties in the movement for general elections by December, aiming to ensure a democratic transition in the country.
Prince reiterated the Left Democratic Alliance’s longstanding stance that a democratic government was urgently needed.
‘An unelected government remaining in place for an extended period will only deepen the country’s political and economic crises,’ he warned.
The BNP leaders have indicated that a formal meeting with the Left Democratic Alliance, an alliance of six left-leaning parties, including the CPB and the SPB, would be held in the near future to finalise a joint course of action in this regard.
A left leader told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that they agreed in principle to the BNP’s proposal to launch a movement demanding elections by December.
BNP standing committee members Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury and Iqbal Hassan Mahmud Tuku, central leader Barkatullah Bulu, CPB president Mohammad Shah Alam, central leader Mujahidul Islam Selim, general secretary Ruhin Hossain Prince, assistant general secretary Mihir Ghosh and SPB general secretary Bazlur Rashid Firoz and joint general secretary Razequzzaman Ratan attended the meeting.
