8 Islamic parties want referendum before polls, neutral admin

Jamaat Nayebe Amir Abdullah Mohammad Teher adressing a joint press conference of 8 Islamic Parties in Dhaka on Friday morning.

Eight Islamic parties have made three demands including a referendum before the 13th national election and the removal of three advisors to the interim government.

Jamaat Nayebe Ameer Syed Abdullah Md. Taher presented the demands at a press conference of the eight parties on Friday (November 14) morning.

The demands are: National elections and referendum to be announced on different days. Three advisors to the interim government must be removed. People with a neutral and accountable attitude should be appointed in the reshuffle of the administration.

The Jamaat Nayebe Ameer said, 'A party has opposed state reforms from the beginning. In the speech of the chief advisor, the interests of a particular party have gained importance instead of implementing the recommendations of the consensus commission. After this speech, the people were left in a dilemma to decide on the referendum.’

Taher also alleged that although 90 percent of the parties agreed on various decisions in the consensus commission, the recommendation of the chief advisor consensus commission to give importance to one party was passed. He said, ‘They are scared about the referendum because they are going against one party like ordinary students in the student parliament elections.’

Taher further said, ‘If there is a referendum before the elections, the party’s thinking will go against its conscience. They are saying out of fear that if there is a referendum, they will not accept it even in their lives. But the government has bowed to their demands and announced a referendum on the same day.’

‘In this, the issue of reforms will become unimportant. Because, on the day of the election, everyone will be focused on getting votes for their party. Later, if the votes in the referendum are low, those who do not want reforms will say – that was supposed to happen. We think this is a trap. Whether they realize it or not, the government has fallen into that trap,’ added the Jamaat Naib-e-Amir.

Alleging that the three advisors are misleading the chief advisor and obstructing the path to a fair election, Taher said, "The three advisors are misleading the chief advisor in various ways. They are trying to give a chance to a particular party by misleading him." He further said, "People could not vote in the last three elections. But we are expressing concern about whether the next national election will be fair and impartial. In the recent reshuffle in the administration, one party is also being given importance. If this continues, there is no possibility of a fair national election." This top leader of Jamaat said, "We want eight parties and some more parties, and the election should be successful before Ramadan in February. We are working on the ground for this. But the situation that deprived the people of their votes for 15 years has arisen again. There is a fear whether another planned election is going to be held." It is not possible to hold a fair and impartial election under this government either. Taher also commented that there has been instability in the political party regarding this.