PV Desk
Extending wholehearted support to the interim government for a free and fair election, Gono Forum(GF) on Saturday called for a national unity to address the challenges and proceed towards a credible election through a strong and competent Election Commission.
“We want free, fair and neutral elections. Today’s government is the people’s government. We will extend support to the government wholeheartedly for the sake of fair elections in the future,” chairman of the coordinating team of Gono Forum Mostafa Mohsin Montu told reporters after their dialogue with Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus.
“We had a detailed discussion. He (CA) listened to us attentively. We discussed issues related to the Constitution, law-and-order situation and judiciary,” Montu said.
Talking about the price hike of essential commodities, he said the syndicate must be uprooted. “We need to work jointly to maintain national unity.”
Gano Forum, literally People’s Forum, emeritus President Dr Kamal Hossain led a nine-member delegation of the party at the dialogue at State guest house Jamuna.
The party called upon the interim government to hold the next national election soon after reconstituting the Election Commission with right persons and completing the ongoing reform works.
They said the situation will remain the same as before if the election is held without completing reform works.
Meanwhile, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) President Dr Col (retd) Oli Ahmad said Bangladesh Awami League should be banned, insisting that they have no right to do politics after its role against 18 crore people of the country in July-August protests.
“Why Awami League should not be banned! We said today again, Awami League should be banned because they waged war against 18 crore people. They have no right to do politics,” he told reporters after holding dialogue with Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus on Saturday.
Oli, who also served as Communications Minister during the BNP-Jamaat tenure, said the Awami League used all, including the police and administration, to remain in power.
He said they could not survive as the army and some police refused to open fire during the protest which, he said, claimed over 1500 lives and injured many people.
Oli said they placed 23 proposals today, including a demand for a free and fair election; and also addressed the issues of price hike of essentials.
This is the second such dialogue in the current phase, which started on October 5 with the participation of BNP, Jamaat, CPB and some other parties.
Fifteen political parties, including Gono Forum, Liberal Democrats Party (LDP), and Bangladesh Jatiya Party (Andaleeve), are among the parties who are invited to join today’s dialogue.
The key purpose of the dialogue is to inform the political parties about the progress of the reform work and seek their suggestions.
