Polls boycott behind Ershad arrest, claims BNP

The party’s acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said in a statement on Friday that the action showed "there is not an iota of democracy in the country”.

He demanded Ershad's immediate release.

Ershad’s arrest amid strained relations with the ruling Awami League following the former dictator's decision to boycott the next elections sparked frenzied speculation.

Jatiya Party presidium member Kazi Firoz Rashid was the first to claim that his party chief had been arrested on Thursday night.

RAB spokesperson Habibur Rahman, however, dismissed the claim, saying they had taken Ershad to the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka.

Around 2:15am on Friday, Jatiya Party Secretary General ABM Ruhul Amin Howlader said the party chief was undergoing treatment.

He would be back home once he recovered, he said.

Mirza Fakhrul said the BNP was "worried" about the "manner" of Ershad's "arrest". "This so-called one-party election is nothing but a farce.”

The Awami League had not lost hope of getting Ershad to agree to take part in the polls even after he was categorical about his boycott decision.

The ruling party was indeed so confident of having Ershad back on the election trail that on Wednesday it left 60 seats for Ershad’s Jatiya Party to contest, anticipating a tie-up.

The Election Commission had on Nov 25 announced the poll schedule, setting Jan 5 as the election date.

Jatiya Party candidates filed their nominations on Dec 2, affirming the party's intention to take part in the election.

In a dramatic move the very next day, however, party chief Ershad announced the boycott of the election, citing the absence of several parties in the contest and the lack of a conducive polls climate.

He also asked his party candidates to stay away from the poll, and even ordered his party members – four ministers and two state ministers in Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's interim poll-time government, and an advisor to the PM – to quit their posts.

Known for changing positions all too frequently, media persons bombarded Ershad with questions on whether he would switch stance yet again. “It is my final decision,” he had said.

Expelled from the Jatiya Party, Kazi Zafar Ahmed had recently said he had learnt from a highly authentic source that Ershad would resign, letting his wife Raushan Ershad take his place.

But Howlader said on Friday that Ershad was still the party's Chairman.