The ruling Awami League is aggrieved as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda lauded BNP and its Founder Ziaur Rahman for 'restoring multi-party democracy'.
But the party is not publicly expressing its reaction on this issue for tactical reasons.
However, Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader said that the CEC’s remark may be a tactic to satisfy the BNP so that they join the next general election. But the policymakers of the party said that it was not the actual reaction the ruling party.
It is guessed that this statement of Obaidul Quader, Road Transport, and Bridges Minister is also a part of political tactics. Leaders of all phases of the party have decided not to speak publicly about the issue without getting a green signal from Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The policymaker sources of Awami League said that till now Sheikh Hasina has not instructed them to express any reaction on this issue. Though the remarks of the CEC has aggrieved embarrassed them, they are considering many aspects before showing any reaction.
Sources said that on Oct 16, some central leaders led by Obaidul Quader sat on an unfixed meeting at the office of the party’s president in Dhanmondi. There several central leaders expressed their agitated reactions regarding the remarks of CEC. But the general secretary advised them not to express such reactions publicly.
Awami League presidium member Faruk Khan told the Bangla Tribune, ‘The remarks of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda has made us agitated. But we are not showing any reaction considering the greater interest of the nation. Moreover, we do not want to make the CEC controversial.’
Faruk Khan thinks in the dialogue with Awami League, CEC will laud Awami League too. He said, ‘By saying Ziaur Rahman as the pathfinder of ‘multi-party democracy' ECE has placed a disputed remark. But we don’t want to make him disputed. From the history, we know that Zia was the ‘introducer of curfew democracy’. We will seek an explanation from the CEC during the party’s dialogue with the EC.
When contacted, AL presidium member Kazi Zaffarullah said, ‘Our party secretary has forbidden us to comment on this issue. We are going to have a dialogue with EC on Wednesday (October 18). Before that, we don’t want to muddy the waters.’
However, the policymaker sources of the Awami League said that AL has investigated the reason behind such remarks of ECE. According to their investigation- ECE get this idea that Ziaur Rahman reestablished the multi-party democracy from BNP website. He didn’t think that his statement would heat up the political environment.
Different policymakers of Awami League said, ‘we have learned through investigation that before sitting in dialogue with political parties, ECE took an idea about what type of proposal they might give by surfing the websites of the parties. In the case of BNP, he did the same. By surfing BNP’s website, he got an idea of their party and gave his speech based on the idea.’
They said, ‘We still do not think the CEC had said those with a purpose. We think that this is an unwitting mistake of the ECE. Before joining the dialogue, we would seek an explanation from the CEC. Hope that we will get a satisfactory explanation from him.’
Several leaders of Awami League said in the condition anonymity to the Bangla Tribune, ‘If the statement of CEC is a deliberate one, then it is a great offense than Chief Justice SK Sinha.’
Another statement of the CEC given before the Comilla City Corporation elections is now guessed as controversial. At that time KM Nurul Huda said, ‘Democracy will be restored through this CCC election.’
Policymakers of Awami League said, ‘At that time we did not pay any attention to his statement. This time also, we are not also taking his statement seriously. However, this type of statements has made many party leaders thoughtful about ECE. Through this speech, ECE has revived the BNP. It has also distorted the history.’
