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Published : 05 Feb 2025, 05:57 PM
BNP Standing Committee member Salahuddin Ahmed says the nation will not accept a “strategy of taking too much time” for the interim government’s reforms.
He said at a discussion on Wednesday, “Identify all the reforms that need to be implemented in the short term to pave the way for the election, discuss them with all quarters and political parties, and make legal reforms. If institutional reforms are needed after legal reforms, do that… we know how long it will take.”
Even though the BNP has called for elections as soon as possible, advisors to the interim government and leaders of the Anti-discrimination Student Movement that led the July uprising have emphasised completing state reforms first.
No specific date has yet been announced for when the next elections will be held. However, Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus has said, depending on the extent to which reforms will be implemented, the 13th national parliamentary elections could be held by the end of 2025 or the first half of 2026.
However, BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed believes that election preparations should not take so much time.
“Currently, the Election Commission has almost completed the work of preparing the voter list. We have the list. A clean voter list will be prepared by Mar 2.”
“After that, the hearing of objections will continue. It will be a continuous process and that too will be completed within a couple of months. We have also received a notification from the Election Commission on the matter. Delimitations will be handled in a timely manner and the other electoral action that is needed, except for legal reforms, should not take much time. So, if you adopt any strategy to take more time, the nation will not accept it.”
Addressing the interim government, Salahuddin said: “If you delay the parliamentary elections, you will have to justify it to the nation. Have you presented your arguments? Have you heard our views?”
“There is still time. I think you should discuss things with everyone and provide an electoral roadmap. If that electoral roadmap seems reasonable, the people will accept it.”
‘SLOW PACE OF REFORMS’
Referring to the handover of the reports of the judicial and public administration reform commissions to the chief advisor on Wednesday, Salahuddin said: “The honourable chief advisor said that all the reform reports will be submitted by Jan 31 and that discussions will be held with political parties and social forces that represent different sections of society. January has passed. Today is Feb 5. Now they are saying that they will be ready for discussions in mid-February. I don’t know how long their discussions will take.”
“Today I saw in the newspaper that yesterday the chief advisor said that Sheikh Hasina is spending a lot of money to create unrest. Sheikh Hasina’s accomplices are also included in your advisory council. We advised you to exclude them, but you did not. Sheikh Hasina’s accomplices are in the administration, even at the highest level. We said that you cannot go far by keeping fascist collaborators. You have heard certain things. It seems that everything is going so slow that we don't understand what reforms you will make.''
The BNP leader said that he had not seen the report on judiciary reforms, but doubted whether the judiciary could be made completely independent if judges from the previous administration remained in place.
Addressing Yunus, he said: "So, be it the judicial system, the administration, the electoral system - you have to remove the fascist accomplices everywhere and, through democratic reforms, establish the constitutional political government that we want. To establish it, you should give the highest priority to election-oriented reforms."
