The ruling Awami League and Jatiya Party are yet to complete negotiation on the distribution of seats for Bangladesh’s 12th general election slated for January 7.
The two parties held a series of meetings in past few days but both the parties kept playing hide-and-seek about the venue and outcome of the meetings.
The ruling party and the main opposition in the parliament held a meeting Friday night.
AL general secretary Obaidul Quader, its presidium member Jahangir Kabir Nanak and joint general secretaries Hasan Mahmud and AFM Bahauddin Nasim and organising secretary Miza Azam, among others, attended the meeting.
JP secretary general Mujibul Haque Chunnu and its senior co-chairman Anisul Islam Mahmud were present at the meeting.
Both the parties held another meeting Saturday afternoon but the place and outcome could not be confirmed.
Mujibul Haque Chunnu told reporters at a briefing at JP chairman’s Banani office on Saturday that they discussed not only the seat-sharing issues but also how to create an environment for peaceful poling.
Asked in how many seats JP candidates would withdraw their candidature and how many seat the ruling party gave to them, he said, ‘We will contest in all seats and the election strategy was also discussed. Everything could not be revealed. We have joined the election to contest, not to boycott the election.’
Asked about the filing of a general dairy with the Uttara West police station on allegation that JP chairman GM Quader received a death threat over telephone for participating in the next election, the JP secretary general claimed that he did not know anything about the matter.
‘More discussion with the ruling party will be held after the allocation of electoral symbols on December 18 and will continue until January 7,’ he added.
Some leaders of both the parties said that the Jatiya Party kept demanding 40 seats while the Awami League agreed to give 26 seats to the party.
The Awami League may not give official candidates in 15 constituencies and in the rest 11 constituencies, the JP candidates may have to fight against official and dummy AL candidates, said some AL leaders said.
They also said that the Jatiya Party kept demanding 40 seats in Jatiya Sangsad, two ministries and a deputy speaker of the parliament.
AL joint general secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim told New Age on Saturday that he attended the meeting on Friday night and knew nothing about the Saturday meeting.
‘We discussed how to make the election a competitive one,’ he said.
Asked about the negotiation between the Awami League and the Jatiya Party, he said that many issues were discussed. Some of the issues are strategic for holding a free, fair and competitive election and those cannot be disclosed, he said.
New Age
