BNP stays away from elections fearing defeat: Hasina

The prime minister says the opposition party cannot muster enough courage to contest polls after deadly arson attacks during its protests

The BNP, the Jamaat-e-Islami and their allies do not contest in elections because they are afraid of defeat, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said.

The prime minister says the opposition parties avoid polls because they cannot muster the courage to seek  ballots after the deadly arson attacks during their protests in 2014-2015.

The ruling Awami League chief, currently on a trip to Tokyo, made the remarks during a reception organised by Bangladeshis in Japan, the state-run BSS news agency reported.

She alleged the BNP-Jamaat clique had killed people and burnt government offices and public transport in a bid to stop the 2014 elections.

Hasina said the Awami League had launched community clinics across the country but the BNP stopped their operation when it came to power because the party’s Chairperson Khelda Zia did not want the Awami League to win support. “Working for people’s wellbeing, not to stop any given facilities, is required to win their hearts.”

She said her party held free and fair elections while the BNP-Jamaat alliance rigged votes.

The prime minister noted that Abdul Hamid is the only president who has been able to be at the Bangabhaban for the full 10 years of his two tenures. "The fair process and practices of democratic norms and values only prevail when Awami League remains in power."

She slammed the critics of the government who do not see democracy now. “They favour those who violated human rights and concealed bodies after killing people.”

Hasina asked where the critics had been when her father and the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed along with most members of the family in 1975. "The killers had received gifts instead of punishment," she said.