Bangladesh News

The Election Commission (EC) will hold separate meetings with the BNP and its allies Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ) on Saturday, wrapping up the yearlong dialogues with political parties on electoral issues.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda yesterday said the commission’s secretariat would issue invitations to the talks today.

The EC was scheduled to hold talks with the three parties today, but changed the date as the BNP yesterday said they were not still prepared, the CEC said.

The BNP had kept from joining its September 7 meeting with the EC, saying the talks will not yield any positive results. The Jamaat and the IOJ followed suit.

The EC then re-invited the BNP on the same day, eager to sit with the party who never held any meeting with the commission since the dialogues began on September 12 last year.

The commission did not invite the Jamaat and the IOJ at the time as they already had had two rounds of talks with the commission.

In a sudden move, the two parties expressed their willingness to talk with the commission yesterday in the morning.

“We’ve already received letters from the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Islami Oikya Jote today about their readiness to enter into dialogue with the commission. But the BNP informed us that they are not ready to sit for talks with the commission tomorrow [Thursday],” CEC Huda told reporters at the EC secretariat in the afternoon.

At the talks, the allies are likely to call for the EC to hold the general election first, cancel the gazette notification on redemarcation of parliamentary constituencies, suspend registration of political parties till the end of the upcoming parliamentary polls.

The EC will announce the dates for elections to parliament, upazila parishad and Dhaka City Corporation following talks with the BNP.

It may also announce its latest stance on registration of parties which is mandatory for the parties to contest the parliamentary polls.

The EC may relax some of the conditions in this regard. Still, the parties must get registered with the commission to contest the parliamentary polls.

According to an EC timeframe, political parties are to apply to the EC by October 15 to get registered.