Jamaat questions BNP meeting at Secretariat to pick presidential candidate
'The Secretariat is an executive place. A top-level political meeting has been held there! We are not aware of any such precedent. Yet they are doing it. So how do they view democracy?' says AHM Hamidur Rahman Azad.
AHM Hamidur Rahman Azad, Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general and coordinator of the party-led alliance, today (13 August) questioned the holding of a BNP meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in the Secretariat to select its candidate for the presidential election.
"The Secretariat is an executive place. A top-level political meeting has been held there! We are not aware of any such precedent. Yet they are doing it. So how do they view democracy?" Azad remarked while talking to reporters after the submission of nomination papers of Colonel (retd) Oli Ahmad, the presidential candidate of the opposition bloc, to Chief Election Commissioner and presidential election officer AMM Nasir Uddin at Nirbachan Bhaban.
The Jamaat leader also referred to a recent remark by now-former BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, saying that there has been no change from the past in the administration over the last five or six months of the current government.
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Azad said the alliance is contesting the presidential election despite lacking a majority in parliament in order to uphold the "beauty of democracy" and restore democratic practices to the right track.
"We want to create a new trend in democratic practice in Bangladesh," he said.
Referring to the 1991 presidential election, Azad said there was a possibility of a competitive contest back then because the BNP did not have a parliamentary majority.
"There is not even that possibility now, as the BNP has already ensured its majority through its own tactics. So they are on the safe side," he added.
Describing Oli Ahmad as a decorated freedom fighter, Azad said he is a nationally respected figure who has remained above controversy and made significant contributions to the country over a long period.
"The nation is viewing this positively and appreciating the decision of our 11-party alliance," he said.
However, he said constitutional provisions have created an obstacle to democratic practice in the presidential election.
Notably, under Article 70 of the Constitution, lawmakers cannot vote against their party's decision.
Azad said the BNP could have introduced secret-ballot voting for the presidential election, bringing change to Article 70. He said implementation of the July Charter would have led to an amendment to Article 70, allowing MPs to vote independently in the presidential election.
The Jamaat leader claimed that the reform has not been implemented due to what he described as the BNP's "stubbornness" and "narrow partisan interests" after the 12 February election.
Asked about expelled Jamaat MP GM Nazrul Islam of Satkhira-4, Azad said MPs will have to vote according to Article 70 as long as the provision remains unchanged in the Constitution.
A delegation of the opposition alliance, led by Azad, submitted the nomination papers to Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin this morning.
In the nomination paper, Jamaat Ameer Dr Shafiqur Rahman proposed Oli as the presidential candidate, while NCP lawmaker Abdullah Al Amin seconded the proposal.
