BNP will join polls: Hanif

The ruling Awami League has welcomed the election schedule and hoped the BNP will join the national election.

“The tension and worries of the countrymen are over,” party Joint General Secretary Mahbub-ul Alam Hanif told reporters on Monday after the Chief Election Commissioner outlined the roadmap to polls.

Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad in a televised address to the nation in the evening announced Jan 5 as the poll date.

Hanif said: “The main Opposition BNP will definitely participate in this election. Many of their leaders and activists are eagerly waiting for the polls.”

BNP acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has demanded the postponement of the schedule amid optimism about a possible compromise between the two main parties, currently at loggerheads over the nature of the poll-time government.

The main opposition and its allies have, however, rejected the roadmap to the general election and called a 48-hour nationwide blockade of roads, railways and waterways starting from 6am Tuesday.

Hanif said: “We urged the BNP several times to sit for a dialogue but they paid no heed to the call.”

He claimed that the BNP was unable to decide on joining the election because of its key ally Jamaat-e-Islami.

Asked if the polls would be 'acceptable', if the BNP stayed away, Hanif said: "All the parties may not contest. The important thing is whether the people are able to spontaneously vote for the candidates of their choice."

The BNP-led 18-Party alliance has called for a 48-hour blockade across Bangladesh starting Tuesday, rejecting the polls schedule.

Hanif warned that the law enforcing agencies would foil any attempt to create 'anarchy' with an iron hand.

Awami League Presidium member Mohammad Nasim told reporters that the BNP was just 'bluffing'.

"It would be hard to find them on the field during the blockade. We have seen their warnings and threats during the past five years," taunted Nasim.

He said there was no alternative to an election and that the poeple, too, wanted one.

"The BNP is not willing to contest the polls as it wants to implement the agenda of the Jamaat-e-Islami," he alleged.

Jamaat, the key ally of the BNP, was recently stripped off its registration with the EC. Only the registered parties can contest polls.

Workers Party, a constituent of the ruling alliance, welcomed the polls schedule.

"The EC has courageously taken the first step to carry out its constitutional duty," the party's General Secretary Anisur Rahman Mallick told bdnews24.com.

"Now, the political parties should do their duty (contest polls)."

He urged the BNP, which had rejected the schedule, to take part in the election.

"The BNP should rethink," said Mallick.

Meanwhile, activists of the Awami League and its affiliates took out processions in parts of Dhaka in support of the election schedule.

A large procession was taken out from in front of the party's headquarters in the evening.

Similar processions, celebrating announcement of the poll schedule were reported from various parts of the capital.