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Opposition weaknesses caused their polls debacle: PM
DHAKA, Dec 31, 2018 (BSS) – Prime Minister and Awami League president
Sheikh Hasina today said the opposition was in a state of wilderness that
caused their debacle in the Sunday’s elections while she would discharge her
responsibility as the “premier of all” during her upcoming five-year tenure.
“It was a credible and transparent election . . . but (opposition) BNP’s
debacle in the polls was caused by their own faults and weakness,”
she said in an interaction with foreign journalists at her official
Ganobhaban residence which was joined as well by overseas poll observers.
Sheikh Hasina indentified BNP’s leadership vacuum as their prime weakness
as the party chairperson Khaleda Zia was serving a prison term on graft
charges while acting BNP chief “fugitive” Tarique Rahman was staying abroad
to evade a life term imprisonment for masterminding the deadly 2004 grenade
attack.
“The people did not know who the opposition leader was . . . though
prominent lawyer Dr Kamal Hossain heads the opposition Jatiya Oikya Front
(JOF)” with BNP being its key partner, Sheikh Hasina said.
Moreover, she said, the opposition fielded four to five candidates in every
constituency in exchange of money, exposing the people to a state of
confusion about the actual BNP candidate while many of them were unknown to
ordinary voters.
The premier, however, said her Awami League-led Grand Alliance largely won
the polls in view of the benefit her government could offer them for the past
10 years, cutting down the poverty rate, improving their financial condition
and enhancing the GDP.
“They (people) wanted continuity of the government, development for which
they overwhelmingly’ voted for us,” Sheikh Hasina said.
She added: “I will be the premier of all.”
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