Preparing for election: EC targets Dec to get all its tasks done

There is no hard and fast decision on when the next election will be held, but the Election Commission is making preparations to hold it in December.

Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus earlier said the election could be held either at the end of this year or in the first half of next year, depending on the reforms that political parties agree upon.

The work on updating the voter list is in full swing, and the authorities are amending the law to redraw the boundaries of electoral constituencies.

The tasks of registering new political parties and setting rules for international and domestic observers and journalists during polls will be done on time, he said.

EC officials say they, however, are aware that the situation may change after the government and political parties discuss and decide what reforms to make before the election.

Holding the election in December will be a practical move because Ramadan, Higher Secondary Certificate exams, and monsoon will make it harder to conduct polls between February and June, EC officials say.

Election Commissioner Brig Gen (Retd) Abul Fazal Sanaullah yesterday said, "We are making preparations assuming that the election will be held in December. We have no alternative plan."

He said this after meeting envoys and representatives from the UNDP and 18 countries, including the EU, the USA, the UK, Japan, China, and South Korea.

A top EC official, requesting anonymity, said, "If we make preparations to hold the election in June [2025], and then [the government] decides to hold it in December, many tasks may remain incomplete."

DEBATE OVER POLLS DATE

Major political parties, including the BNP and its allies, want the national election with the bare minimum reforms. They believe it is possible to hold the next polls by the middle of this year.

The Jamaat-e-Islami favours national polls after all the necessary reforms are made.

The Jatiya Nagorik Committee also prefers national polls after the reforms recommended by reform commissions are made.

Besides, the BNP is against local government polls before the national election while the Nagarik Committee wants the opposite.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said on Monday that the government informed his party that it was working to hold the national election by December.

Fakhrul reiterated that the BNP would not agree to holding local government polls before the national election.

There are discussions about whether the national and local government elections can be held together, he said.

The EC says that the national and local government elections can't be held simultaneously. Past experience shows that conducting all local government elections takes about a year, he said.

Regarding this, EC Sanaullah yesterday said the national election was the EC's priority. However, if the government decides to hold local government elections first, the EC will implement that decision.

The government will decide the scope of the local government elections and which institutions to involve. Only then, the EC will be able to tell whether that will delay the national election.

EC'S PREPARATION

The EC usually needs to update voter lists, set boundaries of constituencies, register new political parties, prepare polling stations, and if necessary, amend electoral laws.

This time around, the EC must wait for the outcomes of the reforms.

Regarding the constituencies, an EC official said a lot of work needs to be done if the number of constituencies is increased to 400 from 300.

Primarily, the EC has begun the process of changing the law concerned. The EC has already received at least 240 objections against raising the number of constituencies to 400. It has received at least 10 applications from political parties seeking registration.

Meanwhile, officials are working on possible changes on the guidelines for international and domestic observers and journalists. The matters were discussed at a meeting of election commissioners on January 28.

EC Sanaullah said policies and guidelines would be reviewed and a committee was scrutinising it.

Bangladesh has witnessed 12 national elections since independence.

Of them, only two -- in 1986 and June 1996 -- were not held in the typically dry months between October and March. Since the restoration of democracy in 1991, six of the seven national polls were held in winter.

The seventh general election was held on June 12, 1996, barely four months after the sixth election, as the Awami League and other opposition parties forced the BNP-led government to step down and hand over power to a caretaker government.

Meanwhile, Stefan Liller, UNDP Bangladesh resident representative, said, "We are supporting the Election Commission to conduct a free and fair election, hopefully the best election in the history of Bangladesh, and that is the aspiration."

The timeline for the polls is solely the decision of the interim government and the EC, he said, "We have nothing to do with that."