No election without referendum on July Charter: Bangladesh's Islamist party

Dhaka, Nov 11 (PTI) Bangladesh's largest Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami on Tuesday expressed its strong opposition to the planned national election in February unless its demand for a referendum to give a “legal basis” to a proposed charter is held ahead of the polls.

"The freedom-loving people of this country have one message — a national referendum must be held before the general election.” Jamaat chief Shafiqur Rahman told a rally jointly organised with its seven Islamist allies in the capital, in an apparent show of strength.

He said there was no possibility of holding the national election without establishing the legal foundation of the July Charter drafted by the National Consensus Commission headed by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus after prolonged consultation with selected political parties.

Jamaat's stance put it in sharp conflict with former prime minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which has firmly opposed staging the referendum ahead of the national election.

“You (Jamaat) are afraid of elections because you know it would end your existence,” BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said at a party rally in northwestern Thakurgaon on Tuesday.

The BNP and Jamaat had signed the charter, containing 84 proposals, at a high-profile ceremony last month. But the process of its implementation has triggered a dispute, with Jamaat insisting that the charter be endorsed through a referendum before the election.

"If we all agreed to sign the charter, then holding the referendum first is the logical step. This will create the legal foundation for the charter, on which the next national election should be held," Rahman said.

The BNP, which has emerged as the frontrunner in the absence of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s now disbanded Awami League party, had initially rejected the idea of a referendum, saying parliament was the appropriate forum since the Constitution has no such provision.

However, it later reluctantly agreed to the plebiscite proposition but insisted it must be held on the day of the national election, before again expressing reservations. BNP policymaking standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said last week that the interim government had taken oath to protect the Constitution, while “there is no provision for a referendum in this Constitution”.

The BNP also alleged that the consensus commission’s final draft deleted several of the party’s dissenting notes, some of which, it claimed, contradicted Bangladesh’s Constitution.

The situation has appeared precarious after the expiry of a seven-day deadline set by the interim government for political parties to reach a consensus on the referendum. Officials said the interim administration was preparing to take a unilateral decision on implementing the charter and determining the referendum’s timing as the BNP refused to hold talks with Jamaat on the issue.

“Since seven days have passed, the government will now sit to decide. After internal discussions, it will take whatever decision it deems best for the country,” climate change affairs adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan told reporters.

Law affairs adviser Asif Nazrul said the government's decision is expected within the next three days.

But the BNP warned that the interim government would be solely responsible for any decision beyond the agreed issues in the July Charter, saying the country’s people would not accept such moves.

"We want to make it very clear to this (interim) government... After nearly nine months of talking to all political parties in the name of reform and reaching an agreement, if you try to force anything on the people beyond those agreed matters, then all responsibility will be yours,” BNP secretary general Alamgir said. PTI AR SCY SCY