Staff Reporter :
Calling upon the countrymen to boycott the January 7 general election, the main opposition party-BNP- on Thursday announced a 48-hour hartal across Bangladesh from six in the morning of Saturday to 6am on Sunday.
BNP Senior Joint-Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, announced the programme while addressing a virtual press conference in the afternoon.
As per the programme, the hartal covers the election-day, a day before the election and six hours after the election.
Ruhul Kabir Rizvi in the press briefing said that his party would hold processions and mass contact campaigns and leaflet distribution among people across the country on Friday urging them to boycott the ‘lopsided’ polls and join the non-cooperation movement of the BNP.
The BNP and its allies are now on simultaneous movement to press home their demand to dissolve the parliament, resignation of the government and handing over power to a non-party caretaker government to hold the next general election.
The opposition parties had earlier announced non-cooperation movement, boycotting the January 7 election and urged the country’s people not to go to polling centres to boycott the election.
Meanwhile, the BNP leader on the day called for boycotting the upcoming national elections for public interest.
“Boycott the election for public interest, for civil liberties and in the interest of basic freedom of the people,” Rizvi said after distributing leaflets calling on people to boycott the elections and join BNP’s non-cooperation movement in front of Uttara Rajuk Model College.
“Don’t push the country towards danger by forcing dummy and lopsided elections,” he urged the government.
Rizvi also said, “Power cannot be retained by cheating the people in this way.”
Earlier on Monday, BNP announced its plans to continue its ongoing mass campaign and leaflet distribution for three more days until 4 January as part of its boycott and non-cooperation movement ahead of the next national polls.
