The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

BNP Secretary General Khandker Delwar Hossain yesterday said the Four-party alliance would not participate in the parliamentary elections unless the government met their seven-point demand.

"Don't create an atmosphere in which the four-party alliance will not be able to join in the polls on December 18," he told journalists after a meeting of the alliance at the BNP Chairperson's political office at Gulshan in the city.

He said the Government is yet to bring favourable atmosphere and create a level playing field for the elections.

Rejecting the Commerce Adviser's statement on Saturday that the Government was considering to fully lifting the state of emergency (in phases) if the election environment develops smoothly, the Secretary General of BNP termed it ' misleading' and 'confusing'.

"The Adviser (Commerce adviser) is misguiding the people," he added.

Reiterating the seven-point of the BNP and the alliance, Delwar warned the government by saying, " We would not participate in the polls if the government fails to meet the demands".

The Government has pledged to implement the demands with us and till today it did not meet those. "If the government accepts the demands then why is it not implementing them," he questioned.

Mentioning the BNP as election oriented party he said, " We want to go to polls. The alliance will give its announcement as soon as the government meets our demands".

Regarding the Adviser's statement about lifting of emergency in phases, Delwar said " It will not be acceptable if the emergency starts to be lifted in phases after submission of nomination papers".

He said many eligible candidates of BNP were still in jail and the emergency has been put in place to debar them from elections.

He also said the government is favouring a particular party and showing discriminatory attitude towards BNP.

"We want an elected government and a parliament. For this reason we want to go to polls," he said.

Rizvi Ahmed, office secretary of BNP, M Quamruzzaman, assistant secretary general of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and Barrister Andalib Rahman, Chairman of Bangladesh Jatiya Party, among others, attended the meeting.