BNP urges govt to fix system for next election

Senior Correspondent: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has urged the government to fix a system through discussion with the country's political parties for holding the next general election.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir came up with the call in a press briefing, in reaction to the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's invitation, at the party chairperson's political office in the capital's Gulshan on Friday.

Earlier on Thursday during her speech for the nation, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged all political parties to participate in the 11th general election spontaneously.

Mirza Fakhrul said, "We obviously want to participate in the election as we believe that a people's representative government can establish only through a free, fair and neutral polls."

"And that's why, complying with the country's political culture, it needs a neutral polls-time government to hold a free and fair election through a valiant and worthy election commission (EC)," he added.

He also urged the government to refrain from 'repressing the opposition leaders' for the sake of ensuring level-playing field in the next election.

He also demanded for releasing all political leaders from jail and withdrawing the false cases filed against them.

risingbd/Dhaka/Jan 13, 2017/Reza/A K Azad