Old wine, new bottle: BNP reacts to draft law on EC formation

A day after the government approved the draft of a law to form the new Election Commission through a search committee, BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan said the proposed law is the same old "rotten system".

The BNP leader said this today while briefing media about the standing committee meeting over the draft law.

He alleged that the government is giving the process of forming an "useless" EC a legal name. "The result will be old wine in a new bottle," the BNP leader said.

"What was being done in an administrative manner so far will happen legally now. That's why we are calling it 'old wine in a new bottle'," Nazrul said.

"The draft law says one cannot be a member of the search committee unless he/she has extensive experience in government service. That means, civil society members or educationists, lawyers cannot be members of the committee. Nowhere in the world will you find this kind of restriction," the BNP leader said. 

People do not expect anything more from an "unelected government", he added.

He said BNP is not going to take part in an election under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

He also termed the president's dialogue with the political parties over EC formation "meaningless".

"We don't know whether the president proposed anything yet as the prime minister is enacting a law," the BNP leader said, adding that the Cabinet Division is forming the law when the president is holding dialogue.

"So, this dialogue has no value and that's why we won't participate (in such dialogue)," he said.