Sit together to end crisis

The current political crises cannot be resolved on the streets and it has to be done through dialogues between the parties, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal said yesterday.
"The Election Commission believes that political parties should sit together at a table and have tea," Awal told reporters at his office in the capital's Agargaon after meeting US Ambassador Peter Haas.
"They [the US] also believe that dialogue between the political parties is needed," he said.
The Election Commission has made it clear that a conducive environment is needed for election, he said.
"The crises are political. If they are resolved politically, it will be much easier for the Election Commission to conduct the election.
"We hope that many of the issues in the political arena will be resolved at any cost. May political stability return."
With the next parliamentary election only months away, the Awami League and the BNP are sticking to their guns on a key issue.
"The crises are political. If they are resolved politically, it will be much easier for the Election Commission to conduct the election."
The BNP says no acceptable election is possible under the AL government while the latter insists that a free and fair election is possible only under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
In recent days, both parties held programmes in the capital and elsewhere showing off their popularity.
Clashes between BNP supporters and law enforcers assisted by ruling party activists turned entries to Dhaka city into battlegrounds on Saturday.
Asked for his take on the CEC's comments, BNP leader Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said, "People who should not be at the Election Commission have gained the positions. It is the outcome of a political crisis.
"We are talking about dialogue. But what will be the basis of the dialogue? It has become clear to locals and foreigners that a free, fair election is not possible under the current government."
The BNP standing committee member added that an impartial government is needed for a proper election. "And for that, a dialogue can be held."
Contacted over phone, AL Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif said that there was no political crisis in the country.
"The BNP is conspiring against the government to spoil the election. They do not want to take part in the election because they don't have a chance to assume power with the people's vote because of their misdeeds."
BNP's demands are unconstitutional, undemocratic and illogical, he said, "The decision of dialogue can be made based on the situation. The door is open for dialogue for any party that speaks in line with the constitutions."
Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan) Secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar told The Daily Star that there was no alternative to dialogue. "It is not possible to resolve the crisis through force... ," he said.
Violence can turn Bangladesh into a conflict zone, and it can invite the UN peacekeeping forces to the country during the elections, he said.
"The government should take the initiative to hold dialogues."
Last week, 14 US congressmen in a letter to the US ambassador to the UN, urged the UN to make arrangements for the presence of peacekeeping forces in Bangladesh during elections "to prevent intimidation, harassment or assault of voters".
At yesterday's meeting between the ambassador and the CEC, the former said the US will send a pre-election monitoring team in early October to assess the pre-polls situation.
In May, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the US would impose visa restrictions on individuals and their immediate family members "if they are responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic election process in Bangladesh."
An European election exploratory mission visited Bangladesh from July 9-23 to determine whether the EU would send a team to observe the country's next parliamentary polls.
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