Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday termed the January 5 general election very important for the continuation of democracy in the country.

The AL chief said if her party is voted to power it would provide electricity to each house and there will be no hut in the country. Each house will be turned into tin-roofed one, she added.

She was addressing a rally at Tarakmouja High School in Pirganj of Rangpur as part of her election campaign.

Hasina is contesting the election from this constituency (Rangpur-6), the hometown of her husband eminent nuclear scientist Dr M Wajed Miah.

Criticising the opposition alliance for its destructive politics, the AL chief said it seemed to her that opposition leader Khaleda Zia waged a war against the poor.

"They (opposition) are simply creating obstacles to the livelihoods of the poor in the name of hartal and blockade programmes," she said.

The AL president said she had tried a lot to bring the opposition leader (Khaleda) to the negotiation table. "Whatever I had tried to bring her to the path of compromise, she (Khaleda) rebuffed it."

Hasina also said looting and killing have turned out to be the main activities of the BNP-Jamaat nexus and the people of the country had witnessed these hei-

nous acts during their regime, too.

About the trial of war criminals, which was one of the main election pledges, Hasina said the trial is on and courts have been pronouncing verdicts. "The

government has already executed the verdict against Abdul Quader Mollah," she said.

Hasina said the BNP chairperson is now trying her best to save the war criminals.