Gonoforum has announced a list of 133 preliminary candidates for the upcoming 13th National Parliamentary Election.
The announcement was made by the party’s acting president Subrata Chowdhury at a press conference organised at the Abdus Salam Hall of the National Press Club on Saturday.
Subrata Chowdhury announced the list of preliminary candidates for 133 constituencies across the country.
Subrata Chowdhury revealed that he himself will contest from the Dhaka-6 constituency, and the party’s General Secretary Md Mizanur Rahman will contest from the Magura-1 constituency.
Furthermore, the party’s Presidium Member SM Altaf Hossain will contest from Dhaka-5, AKM Jaglul Haider Afric from Narsingdi-3, Moshtaq Ahmed from Comilla-3, Selim Akbar from Chandpur-3, Suraiya Begum from Barguna-2, Ansar Khan from Sylhet-1, Abdul Hasib Chowdhury from Habiganj-3, Shri Ratan Banerjee from Chattogram-5, Abdul Hafiz from Jhenaidah-2, Hiron Kumar Das from Barishal-6, and Golam Hossain Abab from Sunamganj-3.
Advisory Council Member AHM Khalequzzaman will contest from Mymensingh-8, and Shantipad Ghosh from Moulvibazar-1.
After the announcement, he said, “We have published the names of 133 individuals today. We will provide the rest in the next phase. Those whose names are not here today will get an opportunity in the upcoming phase. This is a partial list, a preliminary list. From this list, some may be dropped, and many new ones may also be added.”
Prior to the announcement, the Gonoforum acting president said, “The July Charter that was released on the 17th has been signed by many parties, barring one or two parties. Among them, there are also new parties who claim themselves as the vanguard of the July Charter.”
He further said, “You have seen that the unity that was created among us during the July uprising and even before that, and now at this time, a few parties are again presenting new demands to the government. They are even saying that, firstly, if the PR system is not implemented, there will be no election in the country.”
“Secondly, they are saying that if the referendum is not held before the election, then there is no possibility of an election in February. They claim the election will be held in 2029. They are continuously making these statements. Even after the chief adviser’s speech, they supposedly plan to besiege Jamuna again next Monday,” he added.
Regarding the referendum, he said, “There is debate about the four-point referendum question that has been presented. We also have issues. It was not properly drafted. There are linguistic issues. The common people have become united in voting based on symbols. And voting ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ on these four points is very difficult. You might say ‘Yes’ to three and ‘No’ to two. How will this calculation work? That means there is trickery here.”
He further said, “They have packaged four constitutional matters, and you must first say ‘Yes’ to them. It does not allow you the opportunity to say ‘No’ to the one you should. And if you say ‘No’, you have to say ‘No’ to the entire package. So, this debate remains and will continue. Given the condition of our common people, they will have a little difficulty understanding each issue, each word.”
