No election without changing rules of the game: Hasnat

No election will be acceptable without changing the "rules of the game," National Citizen Party (NCP) Chief Organiser (South) Hasnat Abdullah said today (16 August).

"There will be no election without changing the rules of the game. Whether it is held in November or December, that is not an issue. The election must be a Constituent Assembly election," he said while speaking at a discussion meeting titled "Constituent Assembly Election in Implementation of the July Charter" at the party's temporary office in the capital's Banglamotor.

The NCP leader said the day the Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus went to London "to perform a sijdah, that day the government was sold out in London."

Criticising the state of media and bureaucracy, Hasnat said, "The media is now sold to one party. Even secretariat officials are now lining up in Gulshan and Paltan after office hours."

Calling this "unfavourable" for nationalist politics, he remarked, "The entire state settlement should have been for the people. Yet after 5 August, we failed to take action against the media, bureaucracy and the military."

Regarding the constitution, he described it as a "textbook of fascism."

Meanwhile, NCP Member Secretary Akhtar Hossain described the July Declaration as an "incomplete document."

"The July Declaration is an incomplete document announced by the Chief Adviser and Chairman of the National Consensus Commission, Prof Yunus," he said.

Akhtar stressed that there is "no alternative to a new constitution."

He added that the July martyrs gave their lives for reform. Reform means creating a new foundation, and the reality of a new constitution has been created in Bangladesh, he said.

He also noted that although the July Charter is said to be a gentleman's agreement, Bangladesh has seen many such agreements in the past.

"But we know how many remain gentlemen once they come to power," he added.