No giving in to international pressure, says Sheikh Hasina

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has trashed claims of international dissatisfaction over city corporation polls and said there is no reason to bow to foreign pressure. 

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 3 May 2015, 05:33 PM
Updated : 3 May 2015, 06:43 PM

“Let me be clear about this, we did not commit any crime that would force us to give in to international pressure,” she said on Sunday when Chittagong city mayor-elect, AJM Nasir Uddin, met her at Ganabhaban.

BNP and candidates it backed withdrew roughly four hours into the Apr 28 voting, alleging widespread rigging and ballot manipulation.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Hasina on May 1, urging probes into the allegations. The US and EU have also made similar appeals. 

The Awami League president said the BNP chief was trying to create international pressure to remove their government and said such conspiracy will not work.

“No one believes her. Who would put her in power? Remove us from power?”

She also said that photographs of ballot manipulation and stamping of bogus votes appearing in the media do not clearly show any of the perpetrators.

“Their faces cannot be identified. It looks as if the incidents were staged so that photographs could be taken.”

The prime minister said that the BNP’s agitation slowdown, taking part in the city polls, and then withdrawing from them was a ploy.

“Khaleda Zia staged the pullout from the polls to avoid facing the ignominy of a failed movement.

“Does she take people as fools that they will not see through her conspiracy,” Hasina said, reiterating her stand that the BNP chief should be tried for masterminding a violent agitation.

“People would not be safe as long as she is not tried.”

She also expressed horror at the BNP-backed Dhaka North mayor aspirant Tabith Awal’s bagging of more than 300,000 votes. “Do people lock their conscience in when they vote?”