The Election Commission has announced the roadmap for the upcoming 13th Parliamentary elections. Senior Secretary of the EC Secretariat Akhtar Ahmed announcing the roadmap on Thursday said national elections will be held in the first half of February and the election schedule in December.
This is another step forward in organizing the parliamentary elections by the Election Commission (EC).
For a long time, there had been demands from different political parties to announce the roadmap for the elections. We welcome this announcement. With this announcement, Bangladesh has started its journey towards elections.
As the previous three elections were held under the Awami League government, there was pressure from the ruling party on the commission. But the forthcoming elections are being held under a non-party and interim government. So, there is less risk of such pressure.
It is to be noted that the past three elections have not reflected the people’s verdict. Some of them were elections without voting, and some of them have serious allegations of voting being held during the day and at night. In this situation, holding a free, fair and inclusive election is a challenge.
The EC will be able to face the challenge only when they receive the overall support and cooperation of the administration, the armed forces, and the law enforcement agencies.
According to the EC’s roadmap, the EC will hold a dialogue with stakeholders in the last week of September. Representatives of registered political parties, university teachers, civil society, women’s representatives, observers, and media people will participate in this dialogue.
Many new parties, including the National Citizens Party (NCP), have applied for registration and passed the initial verification. We believe this work needs to be finalized by September.
The commission has also taken necessary steps to ensure that expatriate voters can exercise their voting rights.
We think this is positive. The EC should complete the registration of political parties and delimitation of constituencies by September. The National Consensus Commission has not been able to reach consensus on July Charter with political parties despite repeated meetings.
We think that the psychological pressure on political parties also increased after the announcement of the election roadmap.No matter how much leaders talk about the July Charter, the biggest challenge for the government is to see visible improvements in the law and order situation in the country after the election roadmap is announced.
Political parties can also play an important role in creating a fair environment for elections.
