‘Steps on Referendum will follow ordinance’
Staff Reporter :
Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin says the Election Commission will outline its course of action on the proposed Referendum only after the relevant ordinance is issued.
Although the Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus in a televised address recently has already announced that the referendum will be held on the same day as the national election, the CEC made it clear that the legal framework must come first. He made the remarks on Wednesday while wrapping up the fourth day of dialogue with political parties.
According to him, party representatives repeatedly asked how the referendum would work, but the commission cannot move without the law that will authorise and guide the process. Speaking about the Chief Adviser’s announcement, Nasir Uddin said the commission is still waiting for the specific legal instrument.
“Once the referendum law is issued, it will outline what questions will be put to vote, how ballots will be arranged, and what procedures the EC must follow,” he said.
Until then, he said, it would be premature to comment. He referred to the 1991 referendum and noted that a similar legal basis is needed again.
He added that political leaders have been pressing him for details – how it will be conducted, how many ballot boxes will be needed – but none of these decisions can be taken without the ordinance.
“I don’t yet know what course it will take. After the law is issued, we will begin the necessary exercises,” he pointed out.
Reflecting on his long career, the 73-year-old CEC said he has seen the country’s political landscape from the Pakistan era through the present.
He joked that it is difficult to keep politicians on schedule, but said he understands the political “heatwave” surrounding elections.
Nasir Uddin also underlined that the commission must work within the country’s social and political realities.
“These realities cannot be ignored. You may put any of you in this chair and the situation would be the same,” he said to the political leaders, noting that challenges must be confronted in a smart way rather than brushed aside.
He explained that major institutional work had been underway long before the Chief Adviser’s announcement.
The Reform Commission began last year, and the Consensus Commission submitted its report in October.
But the EC could not wait for all recommendations to be finalised before starting election preparations.
EC’s dialogue included BNP, Bangladesh National Party (BJP), Ganodhikar Parishad, Nagorik Oikya, Bangladesh Republican Party, and BSD (Marxist).
The EC chief said the commission is moving “slow and steady”, focusing more on work than words, and believes preparations are progressing successfully so far.