As the national election gets closer amid political bickering between the two major political camps, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Aahmad on Sunday said they will sit in dialogue with political parties if the situation demands.
“We’ll sit in dialogue considering the circumstances. But we still haven’t taken any decision about the dialogue,” he told reporters in response to a query whether the commission will sit in talks with political parties.
The CEC was talking to reporters after a law and order meeting on Barguna-2 by-election at the Commission secretariat.
About Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF), a new party seeking registration, he said a committee has been formed to report back to the commission whether it fulfills the requirements for registration as the party aggrieved with and placed objection about the reports given by the EC’s field-level officials.
Rakibuddin said all the applicants including the BNF looking for registration have been given the second chance as they sought further time. The parties have been given further 15 days to fulfill the requirements of the registration following the law. The time is already over, he added.
“They’ve placed objections over the reports given by the EC officials saying that the reports aren’t correct. They’ve objections regarding the reports… aggrieved with the report, so we’ve given them another chance,” he added.
“For the sake of transparency, we’ve formed a committee to report back to the commission whether they fulfill the requirements. Persons outside the EC are there in the committee.”
Asked Kazi Rakibuddin said he did not know when the committee to report to the commission.
The Election Commission will take decision about the BNF once the committee report is in hand, the CEC said.
About the election of code conduct, Rakibuddin said they have enough time in hand to change the code of conduct for political parties and candidates. They will do it before the announcement of election schedule following the code of conduct of other democratic countries, including Britain and India.
“We’re now examining the code of conduct of Britain, India and other countries where the election is held under political government. We have to ensure one thing— a level-playing field,” Rakibuddin added.
About Barguna by-polls, the CEC said the commission decided to deploy adequate law enforcers in Barguna-2 by-polls slated for October 3 to avert any untoward incident. Twenty-seven law enforcers will guard each polling station alongside the mobile force.
Coast Guard and BGB members will also be deployed in costal areas.
He hoped that the election will be peaceful amid good turnout of voters.
Source: UNBConnect
