Staff Reporter:
BNP senior leader Dr AZM Zahid Hossain on Thursday said their party will very soon finalise nomina-tions for the upcoming national election, giving priority to candidates who are popular among people and score high in internal surveys.
“BNP is a large party and the number of nomination seekers is 10 times more than that of available seats,” he said.
Talking to reporters after paying tribute to BNP founder Ziaur Rahman at his grave, Zahid also said that the party will rely on input from local and district-level leaders as well as internal surveys to decide who will get the nomination and who will not.
“More importantly, those who are most popular in their respective areas and loved by the people will be nominated by BNP. InshAllah, you will see that the BNP top leadership will very soon make a final de-cision regarding its nominations based on these factors,” he said.
Zaid, a BNP Standing Committee member, also said no one has so far received either a green or red sig-nal regarding nomination from the party.
He said some speculative news has recently been circulated on social media and in some newspapers about certain candidates getting a green signal. “Our party’s Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has already said that the party has not yet nominated anyone. The announcement will be made at the appropriate time.”
Zahid said BNP leaders and activists across the country are going door to door at the call of Tarique Rahman, reaching out to voters and the public with the 31-point program. “They are fully engaged in this task, and there is vibrant activity going on.
He said their party has started various activities related to the election preparation since the fall of the Awami League regime.
Dr Zahid said BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman is set to return to the country “very soon” to lead what he said is the final phase of the struggle to restore democracy.
“I have said this before, and I repeat now — Inshallah, within a few weeks, you will see Tarique Rah-man return. He will not be coming back merely to oversee BNP’s electoral process, but to lead the final stage of the struggle to restore democracy,” he added.
Following the political crackdown after the 1/11 changeover, Tarique Rahman has been living in exile in London with his family since 2008.
Prof Zahid, along with leaders and activists of the Diploma Pharmacist Association of Bangladesh, placed floral wreaths at the grave of Ziaur Rahman at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar to pay tribute to him, mark-ing World Pharmacists Day.
