BNP calls meeting to decide on the path forward

The BNP Standing Committee and Jatiya Oikya Front have called meetings to discuss their next course of action after the 11th national parliamentary election.

The BNP Standing Committee, the highest policy-making forum of the party, will hold a meeting on Monday at 4pm at the BNP chairperson's office in Gulshan.  The BNP-led 20-Party Alliance’s meeting will be held in the same place an hour later.

Later at 6pm, the Jatiya Oikya Front alliance steering committee will meet at the chambers of the alliance’s chief, Kamal Hossain, in Motijheel.

The Awami League won 259 of 299 seats in Sunday’s election. Their Grand Alliance won 288 seats.

The Awami League is about to form a government for an unprecedented third consecutive term after winning the election on Sunday. On the other hand, Jatiya Oikya Front’s largest member, the BNP, won five seats while the Gono Forum won two.

The BNP alleged that its agents were expelled from numerous polling stations and that the opposition was involved in vote rigging. Some of the BNP candidates and members of their political alliance had announced they were boycotting the polls on Sunday afternoon. 

Oikya Front senior leaders called a press conference during the announcement of the election results on Sunday night.

At the press conference, Kamal Hossain said: “We ask that you cancel this election right away. We reject the results and demand a new election under a neutral government.”

Labelling the election as ‘farcical,’ BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, “The so-called participatory election has caused long-term damage to the nation.”

The BNP, which ran the government from 1991-1996 and again from 2001-2006, have not had a seat in parliament since they chose to boycott the 2014 election after their demands to holding the election under a neutral government were ignored. Although the BNP chose to contest the 11th parliamentary election, they only won seven seats, making it impossible for them to return to the parliament as the main opposition party.

However, BNP leaders have indicated that the elected MPs from their party in the 2018 election may give up their seats, which would lead to by-elections in those constituencies.