The BNP says it “strongly” wants to contest in the next general elections as it prepares to hold a public rally at Dhaka’s Suhrawardy Udyan on Sunday, when it will reiterate the demands of party chief Khaleda Zia’s release, installing a neutral election-time administration and deploying troops for the polls.
In an interview with Reuters on Saturday, Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said the party ‘strongly’ wants to participate in national elections due in three months.
"As a large party, we have all the preparations for participating in (a) coming election, but for that we need a level playing field, which is not there," he said.
"We are demanding a neutral government as it is our experience that with the ruling party there cannot be a free and fair election," added the senior BNP leader.
The news agency says Mirza Fakhrul’s statement marked the first time the BNP has explicitly stated its plans for the national election.
Elections in Bangladesh are usually marked by violence and protests, and the national polls in December are expected to be no different, as several members of the BNP including its leader are in jail.
The BNP boycotted the 2014 polls after Hasina's governing Awami League, which has been in power since 2009, declined demands to put in place a nonpartisan caretaker government.
Khaleda, a two-term prime minister with whom Hasina has a long and bitter rivalry, was jailed in February for five years on corruption charges that she alleged were part of a plot to hamper her political career.
Her son Tarique Rahman was also convicted and sentenced to a 10-year prison term, though he now lives in exile in London.
Mirza Fakhrul said a decision on who would run for prime minister would be taken in consultation with Khaleda and Rahman.