The chiefs of only six political parties are enjoying the opportunities to address the nation through the state-owned Bangladesh Television ahead of the January-5 parliamentary elections.
The Election Commission allowed the chiefs of the six parties out of total 12 contesting the polls on the basis of their number of candidatures, Election Commission Secretariat sources said.
The six parties include ruling Awami League, HM Ershad-led Jatiya Party, Anwar Hossain Monzu-led Jatiya Party (JP), Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Jasad), Bangladesh Workers’ Party and newly floated Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF).
A 40-minute space of BTV was allocated for AL while 20 minutes for Jatiya Party and 15 minutes for each of the four other parties.
The commission has sent letters to secretary general of parties to record their chiefs’ speeches, said BNF chief Abul Kalam Azad.
Abul Kalam Azad told UNB that BTV broadcast his 10-minute recorded speech at 7:40pm on Wednesday.
The speech of the Workers’ Party chief is scheduled to be broadcast at 8:40pm while that of Jasad at 8:55pm and of JP at 9:15pm on Wednesday.
In the January-5 election, the number of AL candidates is 246 while of Jatiya Party 85, JP 28, Jasad 24, Workers Party 18 and BNF 22.
Meanwhile, the rest six parties who are contesting the election but not getting the opportunities to address the nation are Ganatangri Party (six candidates), National Awami Party (six candidates), Bangladesh Tarikat Federation (three candidates), Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish (two candidates), Gano Front (one candidate) and Bangladesh Islami Front (one candidate).
Source: UNBConnect
