Rtd. bureaucrats call for dialogue with opposition, cancelling national election schedule

A total of 141 retired civil and military bureaucrats called upon the government to cancel the national election schedule and sit in dialogue with the opponents in order to hold the national election under a neutral caretaker government for the country's betterment.
They made the demand through a statement signed by former secretary Ismail Jabiullah and former joint secretary Md Abdul Bari issued on November 22.
The retired officers alleged that by announcing the poll schedule, the Election Commission (EC) was acting as a supportive force for the government in holding another unilateral election like the previous one in 2018.
They said the voters who had yet to cast their votes in the previous elections believed that the present political stalemate could be resolved through dialogue, even bypassing the constitution.
In this regard, the bureaucrats cited the examples of the election in 1991 and 2008.
They warned, "If another one-sided and controversial election will be held in 2024, the present political and economic crisis will deepen further."
The former civil bureaucrats said after scrapping the caretaker government provision in 2011, people could not exercise their franchise during elections in 2014 and 2018.
They said that the government had set up police and civil administration officials upon their wish at different tiers to hold another farcical election in 2024 as it did during the elections in 2014 and 2018.
Former cabinet secretary ASM Abdul Halim, former secretary Md Abdul Qaium, former secretary Syed Sujauddin Ahmed, former secretary Md Abdur Rashid Sarkar, former secretary Abu Md Moniruzzaman Sarkar, former secretary AMM Nasir Uddin, former secretary Md Monirul Isalm, Colonel (retd) Muhammad Ishaq Mia and Lieutenant Colonel (retd) Md Tohidul Islam Chowdhury were among the signatories of the statement.

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