No election without BNP

There will be no election in the country without BNP's participation, party's Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said. 

He urged the government to find out ways to ensure BNP's participation instead of trying to scare it with threats that its registration would be cancelled.

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The BNP leader was addressing a discussion organised by the party at the Jatiya Press Club yesterday, marking five years of the "enforced disappearance" of another leader M Ilias Ali.

Ilias, BNP's then organising secretary and a former lawmaker, went missing along with his driver Ansar Ali at midnight on April 17, 2012. Since then, the BNP has been blaming security agencies for his mysterious disappearance, an allegation denied by the government.

Responding to Awami League leader Mohammed Nasim's remark that BNP's boycott would not have any adverse impact on the polls, Fakhrul said the ruling party would not be allowed to hold a one-sided election.

"As a liberal democratic and election-oriented party, the BNP wants to join the election. But it is the Awami League which will have to pave the way for the BNP to take part in the polls by removing all obstacles. The election must be held under a neutral government and an impartial Election Commission. Otherwise, no polls will be allowed to be held," he also said.

Mentioning that their party is forming new committees of its many units across the country, he asked his party colleagues to unite and build strongholds to make their anti-government movement a success.

He also demanded that the government immediately return Ilias to his family. "Or else, you will be held accountable for it some day."