STAR REPORT

National Citizen Party Spokesman Asif Mahmud Sajib Bhuiyan yesterday urged voters to elect candidates from the 11-party alliance to build a Bangladesh based on equality, human dignity, non-discrimination and justice.

“On February 12, people will determine the nation’s future and elect the rightful leadership -- it will be a historical day for Bangladesh,” he said while addressing election rallies in Senbagh upazila of Noakhali and at Cumilla Town Hall ground.Bangladesh suffered under “Sheikh Hasina’s fascism” for 17 years, and the country is witnessing the same pattern from a party even without it coming to power, Asif said.

Pointing figure at BNP, he said a party is trying to bring loan defaulters to power to loot public money.

Recalling the July uprising, he said around 1,400 students and low-income working people had lost their lives in the struggle against “fascism”, while thousands of mothers had lost their children in the fight for a fascism-free Bangladesh.

He further alleged that although the party frequently speaks of reform at rallies, its top leadership has never publicly addressed reform or a referendum.

Mentioning the attack on two NCP candidates -- Ariful Islam Adeeb of Dhaka-18 and Nasiruddin Patwary of Dhaka-8 -- Asif said: “If a fair election environment is not ensured, the people will defeat them at the ballot box. The people of Bangladesh will not give any mandate to terrorists, attackers, extortionists or bank looters.”

At the Cumilla rally, he assured of creating Cumilla a division if the 11-party alliance is voted to power.