Khaleda can't contest 2019 nat'l election

Information Minister Hasanul Huq Inu yesterday told parliament that Khaleda Zia would not be able to take part in the next national election in 2019 for the crime the BNP chief committed through burning people alive.

“Khaleda Zia's fate has been sealed; she will have to remain out of politics, as she must stand in the dock," he said, calling the former prime minister the "queen of arson terror".

The president of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, a key party in the governing alliance, said, “All democratic forces will take part in the 2019 election. But there's no room for undemocratic ones.” 

BNP-Jamaat forces are undemocratic, and they patronise militancy and criminalism, he added.

“If these elements get any chance again, they'll bite like snakes like they did earlier,” he said. “If you let a pig loose in a well-decorated garden, it'll ruin the whole garden. We can't unleash a pig in the well-decorated garden of democracy."

Inu said, “Khaleda would not be able to escape the laws of the land as well as the people's court for the crimes she had committed during the BNP-Jamaat alliance movement -- killing general people.”

Dismissing criticism, he said there was no democratic shortfall in Bangladesh. “Rather there are some poisonous elements in the democracy, and the government needs to eliminate those.”

Claiming that prices of essentials did not increase after announcement of this year's budget, Inu said, "[Prime Minister] Sheikh Hasina doesn't have a magic stick in hand; she feels for the people and the constitution; she gets hurt when people's lives are miserable; that's why the market is steady."