By IANS,
Dhaka : Ready to join the new parliament and take on the government of her rival Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s former prime minister Khaleda Zia insists that she would have won but for rigging in the Dec 29 poll.
She contended at a rally in Noakhali that people voted for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), “but the result was changed in favour of another party and alliance. Even the voter roll has been tampered with”, The Daily Star quoted her as saying Sunday.
“The caretaker government worked for a particular party, and the four-party alliance was forcibly defeated in the polls. In last two years, they (the caretaker administration) tortured people, so much so that everyone wanted to get rid of them.”
She has said she would dissolve all bodies of her BNP and front organisations to prepare them to take on the new government of Sheikh Hasina.
Her announcement comes amid blame-game within the party and among the Islamist constituents of the four-party alliance that won only 32 seats, conceding a three-fourths majority to the Hasina-led alliance.
She asked party cadres “not to lose heart” in the wake of a massive defeat in the Dec 29 poll.
She has herself lost no time in campaigning for BNP nominee Mahbub-uddin in parliamentary election in Noakhali-1, the lone seat where election had been postponed.
“We want to see implementation of all the pledges Awami League made before the election. But they have already started denying making those (promises).”