Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami's Acting Secretary General Maulana ATM Masum has issued the following statement on 15th December urging to stop the ongoing farce in the name of forming election commission and also pressing for establishing caretaker government system.

After coming to the office, the incumbent authoritarian government cancelled the caretaker government system ignoring the view of the intellectuals, journalists, academicians, political parties and similar recommendations of the majority members of the concerned parliamentary committee. This initiative closed the door for holding a free, fair and credible election. As a result, Bangladesh has turned into a nation without democracy and it has been adversely affected by the tyrannical regime.

During the current regime, in the name of so-called search committee, the government constituted controversial Election commission which arranged two parliamentary elections in 2014 and 2018. But both the elections failed to attain credibility and acceptance. Actually, through this process, entire democratic and electoral process have been destroyed. People’s voting rights and freedom of expression have been snatched away.

Fair and credible election is not possible under a political government. Recent by-election and local government elections also substantiated the necessity of caretaker government system. It is the belief of the general masses. But avoiding the real fact, the President undertook another initiative of holding dialogues in a bid to form a search committee. All these attempts are nothing but a mockery with the people. No political party can join this dialogue process to legitimize government's intentional design of forming its preferred election commission.

I am urging the concerned authorities to stop the ongoing farce to form a search committee and to establish a caretaker government immediately so that such government can ensure a fair and credible election next time with the assistance of a sincere and effective election commission.