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Questions raised over
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secretary is Maj (retd) Md Hanif. Both of them are former BNP leaders.
Hanif resigned form BNP’s executive committee in June 2021. Rahman was elected MP with BNP ticket from Barguna-1 in 1996, but later left the party.
BNM Spokesperson and Joint Convener Sarowar Hossain left BNP in 2019.
He denied that their party is involved in any conspiracy.
“The allegation against BNM that it is hatching conspiracy to split BNP is completely false,” he told The Daily Star yesterday.
Asked whether the ruling party is backing them, he said, “Not at all. It is absolutely false.”
BNM insiders said that at least nine out of the 33 central leaders are retired army officers.
The Daily Star visited the BNM office on the capital’s Airport Road around noon yesterday, when there was no one but an office bearer. Locals said the office was rented only recently.
BSP was formed in 2019 and is member of newly floated Islamic Liberal Alliance. According to media reports, BSP organised different programmes last year, where ruling AL MPs and party leaders including Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya and former AL MP Aga Khan joined either as chief guest or as special guest.
Dhaka University Vice Chancellor Prof M Akhtaruzzaman inaugurated a reception in June this year, after party Chairman Sheikh Shajada Syed Saifuddin Ahmed Maizbhandari got an honorary doctorate degree from Morocco.
Saifuddin Ahmed is also nephew of Syed Najibul Bashar Maizbhandari, chairman of Bangladesh Tarikat Federation, a government ally.
Mohammad Ibrahim Miah, office secretary of the BSP, said that they lean towards the ruling party.
“Leaders of different political parties attend our social programmes,” he told The Daily Star at the party office in Mirpur-1 yesterday.
Meanwhile, Nagarik Oikya Convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna also questioned the EC’s decision to pick these two parties.
“The Election Commission has no impartiality. The constitutional body has now become an affiliate of the ruling party,” he told a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club yesterday.
Nurul Haque Nur, president of a fraction of Gono Odhikar Parishad, was also present at the programme.
He claimed that there were directives from different agencies on the EC not to allow any party other than these two to get registered. He made similar claims on Sunday.
Election Commissioner Md Alamgir said they do not make decisions based on agency reports.
“In a democratic country, anyone can make a complaint, they have the right to do that. The people of this country should judge how true that claim is,” he told The Daily Star yesterday.
He said that BNM and BSP are set to get registration as they have fulfilled the criteria set by the law.

EU should send
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associated with “terrorist acts” should be banned.
Before the meeting with reporters, the EU delegation had a separate meeting with four editors at the same venue.
The reporters encouraged the delegation to support sending election observers regardless of what the next parliamentary polls may look like.
Daily Jugantor Chief of Correspondents Masud Karim, Channel i Special Correspondent Pantho Rahman, Jamuna Television Special Correspondent Mahfuz Mishu, UNB Special Correspondent AKM Moinuddin and Channel 24 Senior Reporter Morshed Hassib Hasan were present at the meeting.
The visiting delegation started working in Bangladesh on July 2 to assess the situation on the ground ahead of the national election, scheduled to be held in late December this year or early January next year.
The EU delegation, led by Riccardo Chelleri, has held over 70 meetings so far. The team is scheduled to leave Bangladesh on July 23.
A technical team of the EU mission will further discuss the relevant issues with the Election Commission on July 18-19.
The main objective of the mission is to assess the “advisability, usefulness and feasibility” of a possible EU Election Observation Mission for the upcoming parliamentary election, according to the EU mission in Dhaka.