CEC likely to face risk of removal: BNP

Senior Correspondent: BNP on Friday alleged that Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda is trying to intimidate it to join the election under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by speaking about the risk of the cancellation of its registration in case of election boycott again.

“The Chief Election Commissioner said BNP’s registration will be at stake if it doesn’t join the polls this time…CEC KM Nurul Huda has become a genuine Baksal-like spokesman,” said BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

Speaking at a press conference at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office, he further said, “The Chief Election Commissioner is intimidating BNP by talking about the risk of its registration annulment so that the party participate in unilateral Baksali election under Sheikh Hasina.”

The BNP leader also said the CEC’s comment exposed that he is putting in his best efforts to hold a stage-managed election.

He said BNP is least bothered about its political registration with the Election Commission since its position is very strong among people. “BNP’s registration is in people’s hands. There’s no point of talking about the paper-based registration of popular political parties since their survival depends on people’s judgment.”

The BNP leader alleged that the CEC enjoys serving the ruling party. “We would like to tell the CEC you’ll also face the risk of removal alongside the government if you have any evil plan over BNP’s registration.”

About their party’s planned public rally for Saturday, Rizvi said they still did not get permission from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) in this regard.

He also said their party has no objection to holding the rally on Sunday at Suhrawardy Udyan if the DMP authorities have any problem to permit them to do it on Saturday.

“We’re still focusing on holding the rally tomorrow (Saturday), but we can also do it on Sunday if they give permission,” Rizvi added.

On Monday, BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi at a press conference announced that they sought permission from the authorities concerned to hold a public rally either at Suhrawardy Udyan or in front of their party’s Nayapaltan central office on Thursday.

But the party rescheduled it on Tuesday it for Saturday.

Meanwhile, the party on Thursday sought fresh permission from the DMP authorities to hold the public rally on Sunday as the authorities reportedly requested it to change the rally schedule and submit a fresh application for the permission.
 

risingbd/Dhaka/September 28, 2018/Reza/A K Azad