The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Wednesday questioned the motive of the ruling Awami League in expressing its willingness to hold a national debate on whether the system of caretaker government should be continued.

The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, said the party did not subscribe to the idea of scrapping the caretaker government system. ‘The necessity of the caretaker government system has not yet ended,’ Delwar said when his attention was drawn to a statement of his counterpart in the Awami League.

‘They [AL] are planning to clutch at power for a longer period by stage-managing the next election. ‘They are planning to cancel the caretaker government system because they want to hold election under them [AL government]. But they should understand that it will not be possible to go to power by rigging vote,’ he said after placing flower at the grave of BNP’s founder Ziaur Rahman on the occasion of the 29th founding anniversary of Jatiyatabadi Swechchhasebak Dal, associate organisation of the party’s volunteers, at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the city.

The Awami League general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, said on Tuesday that the caretaker government ‘experiment’ had failed, and a national debate should take place to decide whether or not to continue with the system. He suggested that the Election Commission could consult all the political parties on the matter. Delwar said the Awami League was trying to drop the caretaker government system by using their majority in the parliament. ‘It is nothing but a daydream. It will not succeed.’

He said, ‘The BNP is not in favour of changing the system now.’ ‘We were not positive about the caretaker government system [in the beginning]. We had introduced the system to fulfil the demand of the Awami League and the Jamaat-e-Islami. It tasted of sweet to them at that time. Why it tastes of sour now, Delwar asked. Paying tribute to the party’s former secretary general, late Abdus Salam Talukdar, at a separate discussion on the day, Delwar said Salam Talukdar was an honest, patriotic and visionary leader with a democratic mind.

Former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Emajuddin Ahmed, also chairman of Abdus Salam Talukdar Smrity Samsad, presided over the discussion. Emajuddin criticised the BNP for neglecting ‘nationalism’ in its activities. ‘Nationalism is uncared for in the political thinking in the party,’ he said. BNP leaders Nazrul Islam Khan, Abdullah Al Noman, Abdul Moyeen Khan and Mizanur Rahman Minu also participated in the discussion.