In an interview published by the international news agency Reuters on Thursday, National Citizens Party (NCP) convener Nahid Islam said that the Constituent Assembly elections and the National Parliament elections can be held together. He believes that a new constitution through the Constituent Assembly elections will help in the transition to a truly democratic process.
However, his statement was rejected by BNP Standing Committee member Salahuddin Ahmed.
He said, "Its clear that there might be no national consensus (regarding holding Constituent Assembly and Parliament elections concurrently). As a member of a major political party, I can tell it to you. The National Parliament elections will be the most urgent and our priority."
He said these things in his welcome speech at the Iftar Mahfil of the Khelafat Majlis at a hotel in Purana Paltan in the capital on Saturday.
Salahuddin Ahmed said, "Yesterday I saw that our new friends who came to politics have made a new proposal. But there is a dictionary of politics, which we call political grammar or dictionary. There are no such words (what they said) there. For example; elections to the Constituent Assembly and the National Assembly can be held at the same time, if there is a national consensus. This is what was said to the Reuters.”
“The Constituent Assembly is only a forum for drafting the constitution of the state. In that case, the jurisdiction of any national parliament is the jurisdiction to amend the constitution from “A to Z”. There (In the interview on Reuters) we about heard a comprehensive amendment to the constitution. Here we can call it a new constitution. If you want, you can call it a new constitution, we have no problem. We think we should not use different kinds of words that are not in the political dictionary and not related to each other.”
Khilafat Majlish secretary general Ahmed Abdul Quader welcomed the invited guests. Before iftar, the party's Ameer Abdul Basit Azad led the prayer.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
