DHAKA  – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today categorically said the polls must be held in Bangladesh on time, brushing aside confusions about the next general elections.

“The Election Commission is taking preparation for the next polls and it will be held as per the commission’s schedule . . . I believe the election will surely be held,” she told a crowded press conference at Ganabhaban here this afternoon.

The premier said certain quarter was deliberately creatingthe confusion so the democratic continuity was disrupted in the country.

“The absence of democracy may create some scopes for them (who are creating the confusion,” she told the press conference arranged to brief the media about the prime minister’s just-concluded Saudi Arabia visit.

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader and Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali were present on the dais with the premier, while PM”s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim moderated it.

Sheikh Hasina said the Election Commission “is independent and they are taking preparation for the next polls independently and the government has no role in this regard”.

“We want free and fair elections be staged in Bangladesh and I believe that elections will be held Insha Allah,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina, however, said conspiracies appeared as a phenomenon in Bangladesh politics and “such plots are hatched in Bangladesh frequently” and feared the trend to exist and continue as well.

“But we’ll be able to hold election by thwarting all conspiracies . . . I don’t know what is your opinion about it, but the Awami League and the government have the strength to face any plots,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina said she believed on peoples strength and “I think the people have confidence and trust in me”.

The premier said her government is advancing the country socioeconomically by facing everything. “We’re moving ahead as the people are our strength and we believe in that strength,” she said.

Asked if the polls time cabinet would be downsized, the premier said she had talked to the President on the issue and the opposition leader.

“I told her (opposition leader) that we could do it (reconstitute the cabinet during polls time) in the way you want”,” Sheikh Hasina said adding that the existing cabinet comprised representatives of parties having stake in parliament despite the Awami League’s two-third majority.

The premier, however, said “I don’t’ know whether a smaller cabinet is needed” and feared that the projects being implemented and expected to be completed in next two or three months could be upset if the cabinet size was shrink.

“I don’t’ know whether the work of these schemes is disrupted if the ministers are excluded from the cabinet” while the government wanted to finish these projects quickly, she said.

The premier said all her cabinet colleagues were working for implementing the projects while “we are approving a huge number of projects everyday and implementing those speedily”.

“The question is that whether there will be any obstruction to development (if the cabinet is downsized) and we are still thinking about it,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina said she also reviewed the polls time practices of parliamentary democracies like Australia, New Zealand, Britain and India and found that “they don’t change the cabinet during polls time and their leaders said cabinet reconstitution during polls time was needless”.

“(Yet) let’s see what happens, if the opposition demands then we will change and if they don’t demand, there is nothing to do,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina said before the 2014 election her government wanted to form the polls-time government comprising all parties while Begum Khaleda Zia was the opposition leader.

“I asked her that let’s form cabinet together and I was ready to give them any ministry but they didn’t come at that time . . . but we formed a small cabinet with members of other opposition parties and completed the election,” the premier said.