EC to ask BNP to come unitedly for reform talks

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The Election Commission (EC) yesterday formally invited both factions of the BNP to sit with it today in an effort to resolve their differences so they can join the long stalled electoral reform talks together.

The BNP faction led by M Saifur Rahman is scheduled to sit with the EC at 10:00am while the other faction loyal to detained BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia at 12:00noon at the EC Secretariat conference room.

The EC Secretariat sent the “courtesy call” invitations through a messenger to Khandaker Delwar Hossain, secretary general appointed by Khaleda, and Maj (retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, secretary general nominated by the party’s standing committee, without mentioning their designations.

“It is a courtesy call and there is no specific agenda for discussion,” Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain told The Daily Star.

Asked what they would discuss with the BNP leaders, he said, “We will ask them to come together to the electoral reform talks with the Election Commission. It would be better for us if they come together.”

The EC will soon hold the stalled dialogue with the BNP to wrap its talks with political parties as the commission has already deviated from its electoral reform roadmap because of the persisting issue of leadership in the BNP.

The EC initiated the move to have the BNP united at its electoral reform dialogue as its earlier invitation to Saifur-led BNP faction made the split in the party distinct. On Tuesday, five advisers to the caretaker government held an informal talk with the faction to discuss the formal dialogue with political parties.

The EC on November 5 last year sent the invitation to Hafiz to join its electoral reform talks, ignoring objections from the Delwar-led BNP faction which claimed to be the mainstream BNP.

Later, the detained BNP chairperson filed a writ petition with the High Court challenging the EC decision to invite Hafiz and the court stayed the operation of the EC letter. The commission suspended its November 22 talks with the Saifur-led BNP faction.

Finally, the High Court discharged Khaleda’s writ petition on April 10, saying the court does not have the jurisdiction to resolve a political party’s internal disputes.

On the same day, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda announced that the EC would informally take moves to resolve the differences between the two BNP factions.

But the CEC expressed his frustration on Tuesday over the current situation within the BNP, saying he does not feel encouraged to initiate such informal step since he did not get any positive signal for unifying the BNP.

However, in a sudden move the EC decided yesterday morning to sit with the two factions.

The nagging BNP issue hampered implementation of the EC’s electoral reform roadmap according to which the dialogue between the EC and political parties was supposed to be completed between September and November last year. The electoral reform proposals were stipulated to be made into laws this February.

The EC began the electoral reform talks with political parties on September 12 and held talks with 15 parties within November except the BNP. It even completed the second round of the talks with these parties last February, excluding the BNP.

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