Staff Reporter:
National Citizen Party (NCP) Convener Nahid Islam on Monday accused the BNP government of conspiring to place its own people in a future caretaker government and warned that the party is emerging as a “new autocrat.”
“The BNP conspired over the caretaker government in the past. They tried to install their own people in 2006 but did not succeed. Now they are again scheming to make someone of their own the chief adviser of the caretaker government,” Nahid told reporters before a meeting of the party’s Dhaka North region at a venue in Munshiganj.
“This clearly means the BNP will not allow the next election to be held fairly in any way. We are saying that they must come out of this plan. The caretaker government formula must be implemented on the basis of the rank choice system we proposed,” he added.
The NCP organized the organizational coordination meeting to review nationwide progress of the party and to finalize plans centering on local government and national elections.
Speaking about freedom of expression, Nahid Islam said repression is continuing across the country against opposition parties and ordinary people who criticize the government.
“We are seeing widespread repression across the country. In the past few months, 22 people have been arrested only for expressing opinions on social media. Yesterday, we saw a news report that a woman in Mymensingh was arrested and taken to a police station for criticizing why she had voted for the BNP, or something to that effect,” he said.
Terming the BNP a “new autocrat,” he said, “If we cannot stop and resist this emerging autocrat at the very beginning, we will have to suffer. The Awami League could not be resisted early after 2008, and as a result, it established a dictatorship and stayed in power for 16 years. The BNP is moving in the same style.”
“No matter how much the BNP now calls itself a ‘child government,’ we believe it is time to discipline this child right now,” he said.
On the upcoming local government elections, the NCP leader said, “We do not think this local government election will be held fairly this time. But we want to make it clear that we will not accept any kind of engineering in the local polls.”
“If there is any such plan, the BNP will not be able to complete its five-year term,” he warned.
