report in The Daily Star July 13, 2023
The ruling Awami League has said there will be no election unless it is held under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The announcement came from a huge “peace” rally near Baitul Mukarram mosque yesterday. At another rally only a kilometre away, the BNP vowed to unseat the government through a one-point movement.
Speaking at the “peace” rally, AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader said, “We, too, have a one-point demand. Our one-point demand is election under Sheikh Hasina.
“The game is on until the election… Take to the streets whenever you are asked,” he told the rally organised by Dhaka city (north and south) units of the AL apparently to counter the BNP rally in Nayapaltan.
The archrival parties held the rallies at a time when delegations from the USA and the European Union are here to assess the environment ahead of the national election, slated for January next year.
Quader, also the road, transport and bridges minister, said, “BNP leaders hate Sheikh Hasina because they know they will lose if they participate in the election.”
Referring to the foreign delegates, he said, “You want free and fair elections. We want that too. Anyone trying to obstruct free and fair elections will be resisted.”
The ruling AL will continue to hold programmes until the polls, he said, asking the party’s associated organisations to organise rallies regularly.
Thousands of supporters started to throng the venue before the event started around 2:30pm. Activists came in droves from Savar, Dhamrai, Dohar, Nawabganj, Keraniganj, and Gazipur.
Some of the senior party leaders were irked by too many banners and festoons in front of the stage. They repeatedly asked the activists to put the banners down, and at one point, said those carrying banners would be expelled.
Local leaders hoping to be MPs and members of different committees mostly brought the banners as part of their self-promotion activities. They even scuffled next to the stage.
At the beginning of his speech, AL Office Secretary Biplab Barua said, “You have covered the stage with banners, please take these down.”
After a while, AL Organising Secretary Mirza Azam took the microphone and said he would teach the unruly banner holders “a lesson in politics” by expelling them.
SM Mannan Kachi, general secretary of Dhaka city (north) AL, said he was not even sure whether the people holding the banners were party activists or someone hired them.
But the warnings didn’t seem to work.
Addressing the rally, Information Minister and AL Joint General Secretary Hasan Mahmud said the BNP had announced a one-point demand before the 2014 election too, but that yielded nothing.
Mahbubul Alam Hanif, another joint general secretary, urged the BNP to take part in the election to test its popularity.
Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh said the capital will be under AL’s control till the election.
“In January, we will show what a proper election is,” he said.
AL presidium members Begum Matia Chowdhury, Abdur Razzaque, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, Qamrul Islam, Dr Mustafa Jalal Mohiuddin, Jahangir Kabir Nanak and Abdur Rahman, AL Joint General Secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim, and organising secretaries Ahmad Hossain, BM Mozammel Haque, among others, addressed the rally. https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/politics/news/no-polls-unless-under-hasina-al-declares-rally-3367441
