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Dhaka, Aug 29: Bangladesh’s Election Commission on Thursday released its work plan for the general election scheduled for February next year. The commission said the full schedule will be made public at least 60 days before the date of the polls is announced.

Akhtar Ahmed, the commission’s senior secretary, told reporters, “The office of the Chief Adviser to the Council of Ministers has instructed us to conduct the election before Ramadan. Ramadan will begin on February 17 or 18. From this, you can estimate the possible election date.”

According to Ahmed, discussions with political parties and other stakeholders are to be completed by the end of September. This process may take about one and a half months. The commission aims to hold the election within the first 15 days of February.

The plan was prepared on the directive of interim government chief adviser Muhammad Yunus and was approved by the commission on Wednesday.

The plan prioritizes 24 key tasks, including amendments to the Representation of the People Order (RPO) and the Delimitation Act, reforms to the Voter List Act and the Election Officers (Special Provisions) Act 1991, and review of the Election Commission Secretariat Act 2009. It also covers finalizing the voter list in phases, creating guidelines for domestic and foreign election observers and journalists, and registering new political parties. Ahmed said the official announcement of the election would come in the second or third week of December.
On August 5, Yunus said in a televised address that the 13th parliamentary elections would be held before Ramadan, meaning in February. But once the commission made its work plan public, political disputes flared.

The newly formed National Citizen Party (NCP), which emerged from last year’s student protest movement, has opposed the plan. The NCP accused the government of breaking its promises.

The NCP was born out of the Student Agitation for Democracy (SAD), the movement that ousted Sheikh Hasina’s government through mass protests last year.

Ariful Islam Adib, NCP’s joint convener and a former SAD leader, told a press conference, “Releasing the roadmap before implementing the ‘July Charter’ is a betrayal. This will create a crisis in the future, and the government will be held responsible.”

The NCP has demanded the formation of a new Constituent Assembly under the “July Charter” to draft a new constitution replacing the 1972 charter.

Jamaat-e-Islami has called for elections under a proportional representation system to expand its presence in parliament.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which has emerged as the country’s largest party in Sheikh Hasina’s absence, stressed the need for speedy settlement of cases against Hasina and her government leaders.

The Yunus government has already banned Awami League activities through executive orders. Jamaat-e-Islami has also backed BNP’s demands. Still, Yunus and his advisers have repeatedly assured that a free and fair election will take place before February, according to India Today.

People’s News Monitoring Service