Former state minister Mohammad Ali Arafat has appreciated the Japanese ambassador to Bangladesh, who advocated for a free, fair and inclusive election.
Recently, the Japanese envoy “very rightly” said that a free, fair, and inclusive election is “essential to building a more peaceful and resilient society, Arafat said in a post on X on Saturday.
“By definition, free and fair elections must be inclusive.”
Muhammad Yunus has asserted that, under his leadership, the nation will experience the freest and fairest election in its history. Arafat questioned how an election can be truly inclusive—and therefore free and fair—if the Awami League, Jatiya Party, and the other 14 minor party alliances, which together represent nearly 50% of the electorate, are excluded.
“It would be the worst election in the nation’s history—prearranged and rigged,” the former parliamentarian said.
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“Unfortunately, some apologists of Yunus’s illegitimate regime are supporting him in staging this charade under the guise of an election; they are nothing more than his paid agents and hypocrites. We must expose them and reveal their true character.
“It should be noted that during the Awami League’s tenure, all elections were inclusive, as no political party was ever forcefully excluded from the process. However, some elections were less participatory (though inclusive) because one major party, the BNP, chose not to take part.”
On Sunday, Arafat said that the responsibility of the administration and the Election Commission is to ensure an open and inclusive electoral environment in which all parties are free to contest. While a government can, in theory, ban a party and prevent it from joining an election, it cannot compel a party to participate if that party decides to abstain—as was the case with the BNP.
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“Therefore, under the Awami League, no party was excluded, and all elections met the criteria of inclusiveness.”
He added that Muhammad Yunus is now moving forward with a clearly non-inclusive election, actively excluding major political parties from the process while still claiming it to be the most transparent and credible election ever—an obviously contradictory claim.
“By comparison, the elections held under the Awami League were far more inclusive and legitimate than the one the Yunus administration is preparing to conduct.”
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