12th Jatiya Sangsad election on Jan 7
Staff Reporter :
The Election Commission has declared that the 12th Jatiya Sangsad (JS) election will be held on 7 January, amid staunch objections from the opposition parties, including the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Andolon Bangladesh.
Claiming that there is an environment of holding free, fair and participatory polls, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal, invited all parties to participate in the polls during a live telecast from the Nirbachan Bhaban.
He also announced that political parties will be able to submit nominations for candidacies till 30 November.
The Election Commission will scrutinise the submissions from 1-4 December. Appeals against the nominations can be submitted from 6-5 December and nominations need to be withdrawn by 17 December.
The CEC also said political parties will be able to distribute symbols within 18 December and the election campaign will officially kick off on 18 December. The campaign duration will end at 8:00am on 5 January.
To conduct the election on 300 constituencies, the EC has appointed a total of 66 returning officer and 592 assistant returning officer.
Awal, who spoke amid a thick blanket of security shrouding the country, made the declaration despite opposition parties insisting that a consensus was yet to be reached regarding the form of government that would be in place during the elections.
“We have held discussions with various stakeholders on numerous occasions.
Heard them out, heard their suggestions, explained our position. We have also called different political parties for dialogue.
“EC, with the government’s help, wants peaceful, participatory and free polls. All political parties must abide by the code of conduct, maintain law and order,” he said.
Earlier this November, the CEC made clear that it did not have a mandate to resolve the crisis between political parties given the limited time in hand ahead of the 12th parliamentary election.
Under the constitution, the national election must be held within 90 days before the five-year term of the current parliament expires.
The BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami have both said they would not go for elections unless it is under a caretaker government.
Even before the announcement, the Islami Andolon Bangladesh had said it would lay siege to the EC premises as it did not support a “one-sided election.”
In view of the objections, major areas and cities of the country were covered in security through the deployment of police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB).
Business leaders on Tuesday (14 November) also urged the FBCCI to meet the BNP and AL to urge them not to hold programmes that could hurt the economy, already under strain of a decade high in food inflation reaching 12.56% in October.
Prior to the EC telecast, US Ambassador Peter Haas had handed out a lettersent by US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu – calling for “dialogue without preconditions” – among the AL, the BNP and the Jatiya Party.
Similar calls have emerged from the UK and even top rights bodies, such as the United Nations.
On 31 October, ruling out the possibility of a dialogue with the BNP, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said she would do so only if the United States President Joe Biden did the same with former US president and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Reacting to Donald Lu’s letter, Awami League General Secretary and Minister of Road Transport and Bridges Obaidul Quader earlier today also rejected the possibility of engaging in dialogue with opposition parties to resolve the ongoing political deadlock.
