Staff Reporter:
The Election Commission (EC) is set to begin dialogue with stakeholders from September 28 ahead of the upcoming 13th Jatiya Sangsad election.
Talking to , EC Secretariat Director of Public Relations Md. Ruhul Amin Mallik has confirmed this, saying that the first phase of the talks will invite representatives from civil society and academia.
“We’ve sought approval from the Commission to start the dialogue on September 28. Initially, represent-atives of civil society and educationists will be invited, followed by others in phases as decided by the Commission,” he added.
According to the EC’s declared roadmap for the 13th Jatiya Sangsad (parliament) election, dialogues with stakeholders were scheduled to commence in the last week of September.
Officials said stakeholders would be formally invited one week to 10 days prior to the talks. The initial rounds will involve civil society, representatives of women, and media personalities.
The roadmap includes dialogues with representatives of registered political parties, university teachers, civil society and women’s representatives, media editors and journalists, election observers, election ex-perts, and wounded July fighters.
The EC plans to conclude the dialogue within one to one and a half months.
Earlier, Election Commissioner Md. Anwarul Islam Sarker told journalists that the roadmap clearly mentioned late September as the starting period of dialogue. “We’ve a plan to sit in the last week of this month,” he said.
The EC is accelerating its efforts to finalize the registration of new political parties in line with its de-clared roadmap. As of now, 51 political parties are officially registered with the Commission.
This year, a record 143 party submitted applications seeking registration to contest the upcoming nation-al polls. Following preliminary scrutiny, 121 applications were rejected, while the remaining 22 parties underwent field-level verification.
The EC has already dispatched formal notifications to the parties whose applications were declined.
