BNP to join next polls, says Hasina

Ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) president Sheikh Hasina on Thursday said her arch enemy Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) will join the next general elections scheduled to be held in late 2018 or early 2019.

Also the leader of the AL’s parliamentary party, Hasina instructed the party MPs to collect and thus scrutinise past election results of their respective constituencies saying, the AL will face strong competition in the next elections from the BNP.

Hasina, also the prime minister, gave the directives while addressing a meeting of AL Parliamentary Party (ALPP) in the treasury bench room at Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban this evening, according to several AL leaders present at the meeting.

An MP present at the meeting told the Prothom Alo that Hasina instructed them to increase their contacts with people ahead of the elections, saying ones who are disconnected with the people will not be able to win the election.

Sheikh Hasina also asked the party MPs to highlight Canada's Ontario Superior Court judgment that dismissed an international bribery case linked to the Padma Multipurpose Bridge project.

She also asked the party men to project the Canadian court verdict that upheld the decision of an immigration officer of the country that he or she had reasonable grounds to “believe that BNP is or was a terrorist organisation as defined.”

Source: Prothom Alo