UN Can't Interfere In Internal Matter: Quader

The ruling Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader on Sunday (December 3) said that the United Nations could not interfere in any country’s internal matter without the approval from its general assembly and security council.

‘UN cannot interfere in any country’s internal matter without receiving approval from its general assembly and security council,’ he said responding to reporters about the UN’s fresh call for holding free, peaceful and inclusive elections at a briefing at AL president Sheikh Hasina’s political office in the capital’s Dhanmondi area.

He asked why the election would not be considered as inclusive without the participation of one or two parties.

He claimed that 28 registered political parties, out of 44, were taking part in the election.

The United Nations has once again said that it wanted to see a free, peaceful and inclusive national election in Bangladesh with the participation of all political parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

‘Our advice, not to repeat myself, is that everyone involved in elections, the government, the opposition, journalists, civil society, all work together to ensure elections where people can express themselves freely, where people can vote freely and that the elections be inclusive and peaceful,’ the UN secretary-general’s spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said while addressing a routine briefing at the UN headquarters in New York on Friday, December 1.

Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister said, ‘The party will not expel any independent candidates.’

He alleged that the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party had taken the path of ‘extremism’ as the party had failed in its movement.

AL organising secretaries Mirza Azam and BM Mozammel Haque and its office secretary Biplab Barua, among others, were present at the briefing.