Staff Correspondent

The Awami League will begin its election preparations on Sheikh Hasina's return home, said AL acting general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam on Tuesday.

"The party workers are looking forward to electioneering activities soon after our president returns," Ashraful told reporters at the Gulshan residence of acting party president Zillur Rahman.
 
"Our partners who coalesced into the 'greater alliance', prior to 1/11 and the cancelled January 2007 polls, are also knocking at our doors. Some of them are getting in touch with Sheikh Hasina too."
 
AL has already initiated preparatory activities, including equipping Hasina's political office to be used as the party's campaign headquarters, procuring computers and setting up a media centre, said Ashraf.
 
"We have also approached those who conducted our campaign programmes in the past, in view of the forthcoming elections."
 
On the status of the 'greater alliance', Ashraf said: "We'll associate with and unite all secular and democratic groups and communities."
 
Asked if AL regarded Islami Oikya Jote as a secular entity, Islam replied: "The anti-Jama'at IOJ faction, led by Misbahur Rahman, yes—because they uphold the spirit of the liberation war."
 
Describing the High Court bail secured by Hasina in an extortion case earlier Tuesday as 'a good omen', Ashraf said: "We'll initiate moves so that the government eventually cancels all the cases."
 
Sheikh Hasina will be accorded a grand reception on her return home, Ashraful said.
 
"The AL executive council will start planning it once we know her return date," he said.
 
On the AL's stance regarding the two former prime ministers sitting together, the acting general secretary said: "Let the formal invitation reach us, then the AL executive council led by Sheikh Hasina will decide how to respond."
 
Earlier in the day, at a meeting of Swechchhasevak League's central committee with AL leaders at Zillur Rahman's residence, the latter had said: "The concept of uniting the two leaders stems from the will to restore and reinstate the fallen icons."
 
AL presidium member Amir Hossain Amu opined: "I don't think we will see the two sit together, after all."

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