Staff Reporter :
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) A M M Nasir Uddin on Saturday said that the schedules for the 13th National Parliamentary Election and the upcoming referendum will be announced in the second week of December.
“We expect to declare the schedule for the national parliamentary election in the second week of December. Once the schedule is out, all details will be clear,” he told reporters after inspecting a mock voting exercise organised by the Election Commission (EC) at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Girls’ High School in the capital.
Four Election Commissioners, the Senior Secretary of the EC Secretariat, and European Union (EU) Ambassador to Bangladesh Michael Miller were present during the event.
The CEC said, “We have pledged to deliver a good, acceptable, and participatory election. Today’s mock voting was aimed at testing the commitments we made-what an ideal polling environment should look like.”
He explained, “We examined how voters queue, how presiding and polling officers perform their duties, and how journalists may operate on election day. Through this practical exercise, we observed everything firsthand.”
Nasir Uddin said the EC intends to conduct the national election with the same level of transparency seen in the mock voting.
“The law and order situation will improve steadily, and the overall environment will remain favourable for the polls,” he added.
Describing the procedure demonstrated during the mock exercise, he said, “Voters stood in line and entered the polling centre one by one.
They showed their slip, the polling officer called out their name, and the assistant presiding officer issued the ballot paper.
Then they entered the booth, marked their vote, and placed it in the ballot box. Many people are still not familiar with this process.”
He noted that a significant portion of first-time voters-especially those added to the voter list over the last 15 years-have never cast a ballot in person before.
“Through this exercise, they are gaining hands-on experience. For us, it also serves as a real-time assessment of the polling environment, since voting usually runs from 8am to 4pm.”
