The Awami League's policymaking presidium has supported the administrative and electoral reforms, executed by the caretaker government and the Election Commission, and lauded the Chief Adviser's speech to the nation on Saturday, reports bdnews24.com.
"We cannot negate what has been achieved since 1/11, just because an odd political party or two should be behaving whimsically," said Syed Ashraful Islam, acting general secretary, at a news conference Sunday.
The news conference followed a meeting of the presidium, the party's highest policymaking body, at the acting chief Zillur Rahman's Gulshan home in the morning.
Zillur, Sajeda Chowdhury, Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed and Motia Chowdhury were present.
"We would like to assure the government of our total support to all its reform initiatives, including the newly-introduced Representation of the People's Order."
He asserted that the party would nominate only honest, eligible and acceptable candidates for the parliamentary polls.
"On behalf of the Awami League, we felicitate the Chief Adviser, the Election Commission and the council of advisers, as the Chief Adviser's speech dispelled all qualms about the elections."
"We'll now expect the caretaker government and the Election Commission to concentrate their efforts on presenting the nation with elections acceptable to all."
On the interim government head Fakhruddin Ahmed's announcement that the Upazilla polls will be held after general elections, Ashraful said, "Mindful of our protests, the government announced that the Upazila polls will be held after the parliamentary polls, though the dates don't seem that realistic."
He said he was convinced that once the AL presented its views and reasons about the Upazila polls dates before the Chief Adviser and his interim cabinet colleagues, they would understand the intricacies involved.
The Chief Adviser announced the parliamentary polls will be held on Dec 18 and elections to Upazilas will follow in less than a week in two phases, on Dec 24 and then on Dec 28.
As Fakhruddin did not mention when the emergency would be lifted, Ashraful said, "We'll talk about this issue, as well. The international community will not accept elections under the emergency gracefully, even if everybody participates."
"We urge the caretaker government to strictly ensure that all black-money hoarders, terrorists and armed goons are barred effectively from the polls," Ashraful told reporters.
He found all aspects of the Chief Adviser's address as 'positive'. "Every difference of opinion is possible to be resolved through discussion."
When his attention was drawn to a piece of news published in a daily that the EC should not be blamed in case the polls are hindered by BNP's non-cooperation, Ashraful said, "We deplore the way BNP and some other parties behaved with the EC at the dialogue meetings."
"They seemed to have forgotten that the RPO 2008 incorporates clauses for which we demonstrated."
AL supports admn, electoral reforms, hails CA's speech
FE Team | Published: September 22, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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