Khaleda Zia sets 6 conditions for polls

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has come up with six conditions for contesting the next parliamentary elections.
The BNP chief placed the conditions at the party’s national executive committee’s meeting at Hotel Le Meridien in Dhaka today.
Khaleda Zia said people want change and this change will take place through an election.
The conditions are:
1. Voting must be under a neutral government.
2. Polls-time government will create a peaceful environment for voters to come to the polling stations.
3. Parliament will have to dissolve before the polls.
4. Election Commission must work to maintain neutrality for holding a free, fair and all-inclusive general election.
5. Army must be deployed during the elections and it will act as a mobile force.
6. EVM/ DVM machine could not be used for voting.
During the opening session, Khaleda Zia said lower courts are now under the grip of the government and thus do not have the power to deliver judgments independently.
The BNP chief also called for national unity urging all political parties to be united.
The meeting, that started after the BNP chief reached the hotel around 11:00am, adopted a motion of condolence expressing deep sorrow at the demise of BNP leaders and activists at different times.
The committee members observed one-minute silence, to show respect to the deceased leaders and activists.
Later, party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir presented the party’s organisational report.
Khaleda Zia called the party’s executive committee meeting to device its plan ahead of the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case verdict scheduled to be delivered on February 8.
Comprised of 502 members, the BNP national executive committee will sit today for the first time since its formation in 2016.
However, according to the party’s charter, holding at least one meeting of its national executive committee every six months is mandatory, but the party is going to hold its first meeting of the committee around two years after its national council.
The BNP boycotted the last parliamentary polls on January 5, 2014, demanding the election be held under a non-partisan interim government. A total of 153 lawmakers were elected uncontested in that polls.