BNP wants national elections by mid-year

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) wants national elections by June-July of the current year.

The party's high command expressed this opinion at a meeting held at the BNP Chairperson's political office at Gulshan in the capital on Monday (January 13) night.

The meeting was held from 6:30pm to 9pm yesterday. BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman presided over the meeting, joining virtually from London.

According to reliable sources who participated in the meeting, the BNP standing committee meeting discussed the roadmap for the upcoming elections and the current political situation. The party's high command observed that the national elections be held by the middle of this year.

BNP leaders said in the meeting that the current discussions and concerns about the local government elections are a waste of time aimed to delay the national elections.

According to them, the interim government should leave the plan of holding local government elections and complete all the arrangements necessary for holding national elections by the middle of this year as per the people's wishes.

The source further said that at the standing committee meeting the BNP leaders said that they will soon bring forward this demand for elections through meetings and seminars.

In addition, the top BNP leaders expressed anger in the meeting over the recent increase in value-added tax (VAT) and supplementary duty on more than 100 products and services.

BNP leaders believe that if there was an elected government in power, they would not have increased the suffering of the people in any way. They would not have increased VAT and tax on products that are related to people’s daily life in this way.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has called a press conference on Tuesday to provide details about the standing committee meeting. The press conference will be held at the BNP Chairperson's political office in Gulshan in the capital on Tuesday afternoon.