EC meeting on by-polls in JS vacant seats Thursday

Staff Reporter :
The Election Commission will decide on Thursday on by-elections to the parliamentary seats which fell vacant after the resignation of seven BNP lawmakers.
Election Commissioner Md Alamgir shared the information with the media on Monday at Nirbachan Bhaban in Agargaon adding that the commission will hold an informal meeting on the matter.
“The commission has received the gazette declaring the seats vacant following the resignation of seven BNP lawmakers. The next procedure is that we will sit for a meeting and decide the schedules of the by-polls,” he said.
“The Chief Election Commissioner and another Election Commissioner are out of Dhaka today. We will hold the meeting
once they return to Dhaka. We will not wait 90 days for the schedule, since the next general election is a little over a year away,” the commissioner said.
.All seven BNP MPs submitted their resignation to the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) speaker on Sunday.
The MPs who have resigned are — Md Zahidur Rahman, Thakurgaon-3; Md Mosharof Hosen, Bogura-4; Gulam Mohammad Siraj, Bogura-6; Md Aminul Islam, Chapainawabganj-2; Md Harunur Rashid, Chapainawabganj-3; Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan, Brahmanbaria-2; and Rumeen Farhana, Women’s Reserved Seat.
BNP’s International Affairs Secretary Rumeen Farhana announced the decision from the party’s Dhaka rally at Golapbagh playground on Saturday.
The MPs had sent their resignation through an e-mail to the concerned authorities the same day.
In 1994, 147 of the 154 opposition parliamentary members of Awami League, Jamaat and Jatiya Party (JaPa) resigned in a bid to oust the then Khaleda Zia’s government.
After a parliament seat gets empty, according to the constitution of Bangladesh, by-elections have to be held for that seat within 90 days of being declared empty.