Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammed Nasim said the next general election will be held under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on time as per the country’s constitution.
“As per the constitution, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will perform her routine works while all executive powers will be vested on the Election
Commission during the electioneering,” he said this on Wednesday while addressing a seminar as the chief guest at CIRDAP auditorium in the city.Bangladesh Heritage Foundation (BHF) organized the seminar titled ‘Election and Level Playing Field’ with its Chairman Waliur Rahman in the chair.
Prime Minister’s Media Affairs Adviser Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury and Chairman of Trinamul BNP Barrister Nazmul Huda addressed the seminar as guests of honour while Shirin Akhter of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) addressed it as special guest.
Nasim said constitutionally Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) is an independent and mostly powerful person. But it depends on the personality of the particular CEC on how he/she would perform his/her duty, he added. Pointing out different irregularities being held during elections under BNP and caretaker governments, the minister said, “We abolished the caretaker government system from our bitter experiences”. The next general election will be held under Sheikh Hasina government like other democratic countries in the world as there is no constitutional barrier in holding the election under political government, the presidium member of Awami League and spokesperson of 14-party alliance said. Noting that raising allegation of irregularities in elections is a habit of BNP, he urged the party to take part in the elections deploying strong polling agents in the polling centers to test the level playing field in the election.
Addressing the seminar, Chairman of Trinamul BNP Barrister Huda said, “I firmly believe that only Sheikh Hasina can present a free, fair and credible election in the country as she already has been emerged as an uncontroversial leader in the country as well as in the world”.
It is high time to rethink about the citizenship of the anti-liberation forces, he also said, adding that they have no right to remain citizens of the country.
Former Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor (VC) Professor Arefin Siddique, World University VC Professor Abdul Mannan, Amader Orthoneeti Editor Naimul Islam Khan and a large number of academics, journalists and civil society members joined the seminar, among others.
