The talks with political parties are an effort to hold an all-inclusive and credible general election, says Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
“We have opened talks with Oikya Front so the people of the country can elect the government they want. I had said not much in the beginning and spoke at the end when, I touched matters like what we can do (to ensure credible polls), what the president or the Election Commission can do,” she said on Saturday.
The Awami League chief’s remarks come a day after the talks while addressing the party’s event to mark the Jail Killing Day, reports BSS.
“Amid the talks, we see they have called for programmes. It’s beyond my understanding how these two can continue simultaneously. I don’t know how the people will take it, but we want the trend of democracy to continue,” she said.

On the Gano Forum chief Kamal Hossain-led alliance’s demand for reconstituting the election commission, Hasina said all the political parties, including the BNP, gave their preferences to the search panel.
“The Election Commission was constituted based on the opinion from all political parties,” she said.
Claiming all elections held under the Awami League administration were fair, the prime minister said, “Nearly 6,000 polls have been held in five years for the Union councils, municipalities as well as by-election, no one questioned them.”
The Awami League only wants to make the life of people better. “It’s the people’s call. If they do not elect us, there’s nothing to do.”
On the 1975 killing of the four national leaders inside the Dhaka central jail months after the Bangabandhu assassination, the prime minister said that the verdict in the killings freed the nation from stigma.
“The verdict was delivered on Nov 8, 1998, and the BNP called for a shutdown that day,” she said.
There are still some people in this country who does not want the nation to prosper, the prime minister said in a clear reference to the BNP and its allies.
“(After taking office in 1991) Khaleda Zia promoted the police officer, who had ordered to open fire on us in Chattogram Jubilee grounds in 1988 (during the Ershad regime). Still, ahead of the 2014 elections, I phone her for the sake of the nation. She did not answer several calls by my ADC (aide-de-camp). Then I call and you all know how she treated me,” said Hasina.
Coming down hard on the BNP for the 2014 violence, she said, “Burning people to death is no political movement. They have murdered 28-29 law enforcers. They burnt down schools and colleges. No one was spared not even children or students. They have burned nearly 3,000 vehicles. We tried our best to rehabilitate (the victims). We make good things and they destroy.”