Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday firmly told parliament that only Awami League can give free and neutral elections in this country and it will continue protecting the voting rights of the people.

“Only Awami League can give free and neutral elections in this country. I can undoubtedly say it," she said, referring to recent city corporation elections and parliamentary by-polls held under her government.

The premier said this while delivering her valedictory speech at the 23rd session (2023-24 Budget Session) of the 11th parliament.

“Our goal is to protect voting rights of the people and attain economic emancipation of the people. We’ve been doing the work and will continue doing it ,” she said.

The Leader of the House said none could raise a single question regarding the recent city elections in Barishal, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet and Gazipur.

Read: Raushan Ershad hopes next national election will be free and fair

“Has any election ever been held in such a peaceful manner in Bangladesh in the past?” she asked.

About the parliamentary by-polls, she said every by-election was held in fair, free and neutral manners.

Earlier, the prime minister raised how elections were rigged in the past during the regimes of Ziaur Rahman, HM Ershad and Khaleda Zia.

She said Ziaur Rahman spoiled the electoral system of the country by grabbing power illegally. Then HM Ershad followed him and Khaleda Zia followed Ershad, she said.

Sheikh Hasina, also the AL president, said her party always struggled for returning the voting rights of the people to their hands.

She said she handed over the power in the most peaceful way in 2001 for the first time in the history of Bangladesh.

Read: No dialogue until govt accepts demand of caretaker govt, quits power: Fakhrul

Depicting the misrules, violence and tortures unleashed by BNP regimes, she said their tortures can be compared only to the repressions carried out by Pakistan occupation forces in 1971.

Noting that none could raise any question over the 2008 general election, she said BNP secured only 29 seats (out of 300) in that election, which reflected the condition of BNP clearly.

The PM said AL and BNP can’t be equal as AL was founded in 1949 from the movement for establishing rights of people, whereas BNP was formed in an illegal way from cantonment grabbing the state power.

“So, their (BNP’s) ideology and principle don’t match with those of AL,” said Sheikh Hasina.

She said her government protected the voting rights of the people and continued the democratic process in Bangladesh during the 2009-2023 period.

Read: BNP, like-minded parties plotting to create chaos over polls: Quader

“Since AL has been in power, the democratic trend continues, the purchasing power of the people has increased, and the country has gained the status of a developing country today,” she said. 

Pointing at those who question the human rights situation of Bangladesh, she said they should protect the human rights of the people of their own countries first.

She questioned why those who say there are no human rights in Bangladesh, didn’t see the repression committed in 2001, the August 21 grenade attack and what happened in Bangladesh from August 15, 1975 to 1996.

Noting that her government gave shelter to persecuted and forcibly displaced Rohingya people in Bangladesh, the PM said: “We took the responsibility of so many people on humanitarian ground. What can be a big instance of human rights protection from it? It is my question,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina questioned why the AL government would violate human rights when it gave shelter to persecuted people of another country. “How can they say that?” she said.

She said many people were killed in many places throughout the world. Children are killed in schools and (the people were killed) in shopping malls and streets in gun-shootings regularly even in the USA, she added.

Read: No fair polls possible without neutral govt: Fakhrul tells EU envoy

“They should protect the human rights of their own countries first,” said the PM.

The session, which started on May 31, was later prorogued. It held 22 sittings.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury read out the prorogation order of the president in the afternoon.