BNP claims foreign donors lack confidence in AL govt

BNP yesterday claimed that foreign donors have expressed having no confidence in the government's election management by withdrawing funds for an Election Commission (EC) project.

Addressing a press briefing at the party's Nayapaltan central office, BNP spokesperson Asaduzzaman Ripon urged the EC's chief election commissioner and four commissioners to quit office for denting the EC's credibility.

"The country's people have no confidence in the current regime like the international community," he said.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) terminated a project "Strengthening Election Management in Bangladesh" much earlier than scheduled for withdrawal of funds by donors.

"...the project will be terminated at the end of July 2015," said a UN media note issued recently. The EU, the United Kingdom, and the US had been funding it since April 2012.

Ripon, also BNP's international affairs secretary, said the donors got disappointed witnessing irregularities and manipulation in the three city corporation polls held on April 28.

"The UNDP and the EU had requested the EC to look into the incidents, but neither the government nor the commission carried out any investigation."

He came down hard on the EC saying it has turned into a shameless puppet organisation of the government.

Mentioning that the EC has lost all credibility to hold any free and fair election, the BNP leader said, "We have long been calling for reconstituting the commission. We now urge the chief election commissioner and other commissioners to quit voluntarily paving the path for forming a fair, credible and accountable commission."

He also demanded that the government reconstitute the EC in consultation with all the registered parties and civil society members.

Ripon strongly condemned Health Minister Mohammad Nasim's remark that BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's politics was now limited to Ladies Club.

"It is a regrettable matter that our constitutional rights have gradually been squeezed. Our democratic space has been shrunk to such a place that an influential minister is now saying that Khaleda Zia's politics is limited to Ladies Club. You have kept BNP indoors barring the door leading to the field. Is it your credit or fascist and autocratic attitude?"

He also protested the attack on an Iftar party of BNP leader Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan in Narsingdi allegedly by ruling party cadres and demanded that the government bring the perpetrators to book.