The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has announced its decision to boycott the upcoming Upazila Parishad elections in continuation to their stance of boycotting elections with the Awami League (AL) government in power.
The decision was made during a meeting held by BNP's standing committee on Monday (15 April) night.
A statement issued by BNP’s Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi today (16 April) said, the party perceives the current electoral environment as unfavourable for fair and peaceful elections that prompted their withdrawal from the elections scheduled to begin on 8 May.
“The BNP has previously boycotted national parliamentary elections under the current Election Commission. The deteriorating situation provides a valid reason for not participating in the upcoming upazila elections. So, BNP has decided to boycott all phases of the Upazila Parishad elections starting from 8 May,” the statement reads.
It further said, “Under the current government, no elections, whether national or local, have been free and fair. The Election Commission declares candidates nominated by the ruling party as winners.”
The party said the opposition candidates have been subjected to attacks, legal actions, and harassment.
“Our party leaders and activists encounter continuous obstacles, including physical assaults during the processes of nomination filing and election campaigning, with many even being barred from submitting their nomination papers,” the statement reads.
However, the announcement came shortly after the deadline had passed for submitting nomination papers for the initial phase of elections across 150 upazilas.
In between, about 45 BNP leaders had already submitted their nomination papers to run as independent candidates.
Senior BNP leaders have signalled that directives would be issued to those candidates to retract their candidacies.
BNP Standing Committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy said, “The party considers the number of 45 leaders who filed nominations to be relatively low. It indicates a lack of interest among grassroots leaders in participating in the upazila elections.”
Previously, the BNP had boycotted the 12th national parliamentary elections on January 7, after failing to persuade the government to hold elections under a non-partisan administration.
