The ruling and the opposition party, which met under a UN mediation on
Tuesday, agreed to continue with dialogues in the spirit of goodwill and
compromise and work together constructively to ease tension and build
confidence, UN assistant secretary general Oscar Fernández-Taranco said.
Fernández-Taranco made the announcement at the Sonargaon Hotel in the
evening after a meeting with delegations of the Awami League and the
Bangladesh Nationalist Party in a house at Gulshan in the capital in the
afternoon.
The Awami League’s general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam and he acting
BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir led the party
delegations to the meeting.
Fernández-Taranco said that he had extended his tour of Dhaka by 24
hours and he would be able to answer all questions at a news conference
on Wednesday afternoon.
‘Today represents an important moment in the current context… I want to
take the opportunity to applaud the decision to sit down and seize this
important opportunity. This shows the political leadership’s
responsibility and courage. It is also an answer to the expectations of
the people of Bangladesh,’ he said.
The visiting UN team after meeting major political parties and election
stakeholders on Monday night could convince both the parties to sit
across the table.
The meeting was held in a house at Gulshan where Syed Ashraful Islam,
Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed and Gowher Rizvi were on the Awami League
side and
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, Abdul Moin Khan and Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury were on the BNP side.
Sources in both the parties said they had softened their previous stance
at the meeting but details of the meeting could not be immediately
known.
Immediately after the meeting, all the BNP leaders went to the party chief’s house to inform Khaleda Zia of the meeting outcome.
The BNP in a statement said that the meeting had been held at the house
of Neal Walker, the UN resident coordinator in Dhaka. It said that both
the parties had agreed to continue with dialogues to hold free, fair,
acceptable and inclusive elections.
The BNP also thanked the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon for initiating a move to end the ongoing uncertainty.
BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain at night told
reporters there were introductory discussions between the two parties at
the meeting with the Awami League to find out a solution to the present
crisis before of the next general elections and the discussion would
continue.
The next round of discussion would be held very soon, Mosharraf said
hoping that it might be mediated by the UN resident coordinator in
Dhaka.
Asked whether the elections schedule would be changed, Mosharraf said
that primary discussions had taken place on Tuesday and it was not an
appropriate time to comment on it.
Asked about what was discussed at Tuesday’s meeting, he said that they
discussed how to hold free, fair, credible and inclusive elections by
creating a level playing field for all.
The Awami League in a statement said that the AL delegation urged the
BNP to stop enforcing general strike, blockade, damaging public
property, killing people in arson attacks and bombings and to ensure
security of lives and property of people to create a congenial
atmosphere for dialogues. The Awami League said that no discussion would
become fruitful if such anarchy was not stopped.
The statement, signed by the party’s office secretary Abdus Sobhan
Golap, said that the BNP at the meeting had demanded release of its
detained leaders and activists and raised the issue of the election-time
government.
In reply, the Awami League delegation said that the detained leaders of
the BNP would be released and discussion on election-time government
could be held only if the BNP could ensure that they would stop their
subversive activities in the name of enforcing strike and blockade.
The Jatiya Party in a letter to the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon
requested the UN to play a role in constituting a polls-time government
headed by a person acceptable to all.
The party chairman, HM Ershad, requested the UN secretary general to
ensure a UN role in holding inclusive elections, Bobby Hajjaj, special
adviser to HM Ershad, told New Age on Tuesday.
The letter was handed to members on the UN team that Fernández Taranco is leading, Hajjaj claimed.
The UN move to mediate among parties followed violent demonstrations
because of the rigid stance by both the ruling and the opposition camp
over the next parliamentary elections.
Fernández-Taranco met the prime minister, the leader of the opposition
in the parliament,, the chief election commissioner and other political
leaders.
He wanted to know whether it would be possible to defer the polls
schedule and the chief election commissioner told him that it was
possible if the UN could broker a consensus between the ruling and the
opposition camp.
With the elections less than a month away, scheduled for January 5, the
Jatiya Party, a key partner in the ruling Awami League alliance until
recently, announced a boycott of the elections saying that if all
parties did not join, elections would no be acceptable. (source)