Bangladesh PM says EC to be reorganised as per president’s suggestions

From New Age
The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has said her government will reorganise the Election Commission as per the suggestions of the president.

‘The government has taken initiatives to strengthen further the EC to ensure the voting rights of the people and we would accept the suggestions of the president to this end,’ she said.

The prime minister categorically said her government had no intention to remain in power by snatching the voting rights of the people.

‘We believe in people’s empowerment and they (people) would decide who would go to power who wouldn’t,’ she said when the Canadian high commissioner to Bangladesh, Heather Cruden, called on her at her official Ganabhaban residence in Dhaka Monday evening.

After the meeting, the deputy press secretary to the prime minister, M Nazrul Islam, briefed reporters.

Hasina highlighted the bitter experience of the caretaker government and said the last interim government overstayed in power illegally for two years instead of three months.

She said all elections under the present government were held in a free, fair and transparent manner and the government did not make any interference in the polls. ‘Many opposition candidates won these elections,’ she said.

The prime minister listed the government’s successes in the fields of agriculture, education, women empowerment and health.

She said the government had undertaken ‘Vision 2021’ programme to turn Bangladesh into a middle-income country by 2021.

The prime minister sought more Canadian assistance in different sectors of the country.

The Canadian envoy praised the government’s successes in different fields including education, health, agriculture, women empowerment and food security.

She also lauded the election manifesto of the present government terming it well-planned.

Ambassador-at-large M Ziauddin and special assistant to the prime minister Abdus Sobhan Golap were present on the occasion.