The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) has pushed for talks between the feuding political coalitions led by the ruling Awami League and the Opposition BNP saying time is running out.
On Monday, the last day of nomination submission, Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad had hinted at changing the polls schedule if the two parties reached an understanding.
“Time for reaching an agreement is slipping away,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “Time is short.”
The Election Commission (EC) had waited for a political understanding even before scheduling the general election.
However, Ahmad is apparently still hopeful that the Opposition coalition would contest the polls.
On Monday, Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia had said the door to an agreement with the government was still open in order to end the deadlock.
The political alliances are no nearer an agreement over the polls-time dispensation. The government has formed a reconstituted ‘all-party’ interim cabinet but the Opposition has been demanding a non-party government to supervise the general election.
It has enforced several spells of shutdowns and clamped blockades across Bangladesh to press its demand.
At least 37 people have been killed in the Opposition’s two spells of blockade since Nov 26.
As per the schedule, the parliamentary polls would be held on Jan 5.
The BNP had demanded the scrapping of the poll time-line. The Awami League, on the other hand, is preparing for the poll on a war footing.
“[We] hope there would be substantial progress before time ran out,” CEC Ahmad said.
Source: Bd news24
