BNP will harm itself if it stays away from municipal elections, Hasina says

The BNP will do damage to itself if it does not contest in the municipality polls, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has remarked.

She was speaking in a meeting of Awami League’s Central Working Committee and Parliamentary Board at Ganabhaban on Thursday.

“It remains to be seen how they (BNP) will fare if they take part in the [municipal] elections. They will harm themselves if they do not,” she said.

All local government elections are going to be held on party lines from now on, starting with the municipal polls slated for Dec 30.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has consulted the leaders of her party and allies in a bid to decide about the stance on the polls.

The party is yet to make any announcement over the municipal elections after it boycotted the 10th Parliament election and polls to the three city corporations in Dhaka and Chittagong in 2015.

The BNP leaders have been alleging that allowing mayor candidates to fight with party nomination and symbol is a ‘conspiracy’ against the party.

The Awami League chief, however, thinks democracy will flourish if local polls are held on political party lines.

“Let’s see whether [BNP] will take part in the election.”

“I want every political party to take the chance. They will be able to reform their parties by contesting in the polls with their party symbols,” she said in the meeting on Thursday.

She accused the party of applying ‘double standards’ by boycotting the national elections but taking part in the local polls.

Hasina also said her Awami League party needed a formula to nominate candidates for the municipal election.