Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami protested and criticised a Bangladesh Nationalist Party standing committee meeting held at the Prime Minister’s Office in the Secretariat. Hamidur Rahman Azad, coordinator of the Jamaat-led 11-party alliance and the party’s assistant secretary general, raised the issue on Thursday after submitting presidential candidate Oli Ahmed’s nomination papers to the Election Commission.

Azad said the Secretariat was an executive venue and that the alliance knew of no previous record of a political party holding a top-level or top forum meeting there. He questioned how those involved viewed democracy, arguing that they treated it as democracy only when it suited their own party and as authoritarianism otherwise.

The alliance coordinator said Jamaat ameer Shafiqul Rahman signed Oli Ahmed’s nomination form as proposer, while NCP’s Abdullah Al-Amin signed as supporter. Describing Oli Ahmed as a qualified candidate, Azad claimed the Jamaat alliance candidate would win if members of parliament were able to vote independently.