BNP Standing Committee member Nazrul Islam Khan said, “Today, there are discussions in various quarters driven by the aspiration to restore democracy. Without going into the breadth of those discussions, I will simply say this—we have said it, and the Labour Party has said it, that the election should be held by December. I want to place a question before the journalist friends present here: those who oppose this, just tell us—on what grounds should an election be held after December? What is the reason?” He raised the question on Friday (16 May) at a discussion meeting titled ‘Maulana Matin’s Role in Building an Exploitation-Free Society’, organised by the Bangladesh Labour Party at the Abdus Salam Hall of the National Press Club. Nazrul Islam Khan said, “With the fall of fascism, one phase of the single-point demand announced last August has already been completed. Now people are waiting impatiently in the hope that the remaining part of their demand will be fulfilled. For the past 16–17 years, people have not been able to exercise their fundamental rights. There are many young people who are still young in age but have been voters for a long time—yet to this day they have not been able to exercise their right to vote. They want to exercise that right and express their views in running the state. This is their highest political right. It is for securing this right that thousands of people have been imprisoned, have lost their lives, and have been subjected to repression.”