“People don’t want to invite the situation that prevailed during the two-year tenure of the last caretaker government. The elections in the country will be held like that in other democratic countries”

By Mizan Rahman/Dhaka

The Bangladesh prime minister, also president of the ruling Awami League, yesterday said next elections in Bangladesh will be held in a democratic way.

“People don’t want to invite the situation that prevailed during the two-year tenure of the last caretaker government. The elections in the country will be held like that in other democratic countries,” Sheikh Hasina said.

The Awami League president made the remarks in her concluding speech at the party’s national council in Dhaka’s Suhrawardy Udyan.

Hasina said people do not want to bring back the dark age of an unelected government as they are in favour of continuation of the democratic process in the country.

Main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, headed by former prime minister Khaleda Zia, is currently continuing agitation to force Hasina to restore non-political and neutral caretaker government system for holding of the next
parliamentary poll.

Later in her instant reaction after the re-election as the party president for the seventh successive term, Hasina said: “It’s a big responsibility … I had expected there’ll be new leadership and I’ll assist them staying beside them. That’s why I had no preparation for this,” adding: “But I gladly accept the responsibility you bestowed upon me as the parliamentary election is ahead of us.”

Hasina claimed that the party is now more organised than in the past and said once there were many ‘brackets’ after the name of the party in 1981 but now there is none.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Hasina was yesterday re-elected president of the ruling Awami League, while Local Government and Rural Development Minister Syed Ashraful Islam retains the post of general secretary.

The officer-bearers of the Awami League, one of the oldest political parties of Bangladesh, unanimously elected them for the posts in its 19th council yesterday as there were no other candidates for the two posts.

With this, Hasina was elected the president of Awami League for the seventh consecutive time. She was first made the party president in 1981.

Syed Ashraf was made the party general secretary for the first time in 2009.

Earlier, the 19th national council of the ruling party began with a festive mood at the historic Suhrawardy Uddyan yesterday. Party president and Prime Minister Hasina formally inaugurated the council.

Some 6,300 councillors, 20,000 delegates and invited guests attended the council. The Awami League’s party constitution stipulates holding the council every three years.