Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader on Saturday addresses a press briefing at the Awami League president’s Dhanmondi office in Dhaka. — UNB photo
Ruling Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader on Saturday said that the Election Commission had to take action for any violence or chaos centring the national election as it was now their responsibility.
‘We have confidence in the decision made by the Election Commission,’ he said while responding to a question about the AL factional clash between supporters of AL candidate AKM Enamul Hoque and the independent candidate Khaled Shawkat Ali, also Juba League presidium member, at Naria in Shariatpur that left 10 people, including three pedestrians, injured at a press conference at the AL president Sheikh Hasina’s political office.
Quader, also the road, transport and bridges minister termed the indiscriminate independent candidates against the party-nominated candidates ‘a beauty of democracy’.
‘If any independent candidate moves forward leaving the heavyweight candidate behind, we could not create obstacle to them. Democracy is competition,’ he added.
He claimed that the people of the country were now in a festive mood and eagerly waiting to cast their vote on January 7, the date of the 12th parliamentary polls.
He also alleged that the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and others tried to foil the forthcoming elections and have been trying to do so, but they failed and would not succeed in the days to come.
‘The election will be held on time and no one could foil it,’ he added.
Asked about the former BNP vice-chairman Shahjahan Omar’s nomination as a AL candidate for the Jhalakathi-1 constituency in the January 7 parliamentary polls a day after he was released on bail at a time when most of the BNP leaders’ bail was denied, he said that BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and its standing committee member Mirza Abbas could not avoid the responsibility for killing a police member in broad daylight and attack on the chief justice residence on October 28.
‘The two cases are different from each other,’ he said, adding that anyone could choose to join any political parties, if they wanted to be in a democratic process.
He claimed that the BNP had failed to wage a movement as the ordinary people did not join it.
AL presidium member Kamrul Islam, joint general secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim, organising secretaries BM Mozammel Haque and Sujit Roy Nandi, among others, were present at the briefing.
