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Published on December 23, 2013
Returning home just 11 days before the Jan 5 polls, Sajeeb Ahmed Wajed Joy alleged the BNP was staying away because its ally Jamaat-e-Islami cannot contest.
The High Court earlier this year had cancelled Jamaat's registration as certain clauses of the party's charter were in conflict with the Constitution.
"The BNP does not go to election without the Jamaat taking sides with the war criminals. They (the BNP) will not contest it since the Jamaat cannot," Joy said this on Monday evening.
Joy continued: "There won't be any problem if anyone stays away from the polls due to the trials of the (suspected) war criminals."
"If people here accept the election, it will be acceptable. Because this time there are no 14 million fake voters like in 2006," he retorted, referring to the huge numbers during the BNP-led government’s tenure.
Joy hoped the next parliamentary polls under the Awami League will be held in a free, fair and non-partisan manner.
He blamed the BNP's stubbornness for the election being held without the Opposition. The Prime Minister's son pointed out to the Awami eague offering the BNP several ministries in the polls-time government.
"It’s a democratic right of a political party to boycott the polls. We cannot force them to contest."
Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia has repeatedly said she would not go to polls under Hasina, her arch political rival.
"What's the logic? Why the Prime Minister, trying the war criminals, has to step down?
"It is clear that the Prime Minister's resignation is being sought to stop the war crimes trials," Joy observed.
Source: BDNEWS24.COM
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