Bangladesh News

Awami League (AL) will demand announcement of a date for the next general election at the second-round talks with the Election Commission (EC) scheduled to begin Monday.

“Confusion runs rampant in public mind over the election and its timing. We will ask the Election Commission to announce a date for the polls,” AL Presidium Member Suranjit Sengupta told The Daily Star after a meeting of the Presidium, the highest policy-making body.

Meanwhile, AL Central Working Committee meets today at party President Sheikh Hasina’s political office in Dhanmondi to finalise its proposals to be placed at the electoral reforms talks. Outcome of the meeting scheduled to begin at 11:00am would later be shared with the press.

Besides discussing the proposals, the Presidium last night also decided to urge the EC to arrange for the state of emergency to be withdrawn before the elections to city corporations and other local government bodies.

It would also ask for the ban on indoor politics to be lifted immediately from across the country, said Suranjit.

Held at the residence of acting president Zillur Rahman, the meeting observed that the entire electoral process seems to have slowed down and the EC should quickly wrap up the voter listing job and the long-stalled dialogue with the BNP.

AL will also call for the commission not to allow Jamaat-e-Islami to register for what it says was exploiting Islam for political gains.

The other demands include provisions barring the war criminals from the election and release of all detained AL leaders and workers including Hasina and general secretary Abdul Jalil to bring about an atmosphere conducive to free and fair election.

Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta, Motia Chowdhury, Ataur Rahman Khan Kaiser, Kazi Zafrullah and Syed Ashraful Islam attended the meeting.