Staff Reporter:
Election Commission Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said on Saturday that despite being in full preparation for conducting the upcoming national election, EC has not yet decided when the election schedule will be announced.
Akhtar shared this information on Saturday afternoon while speaking at a workshop for journalists at the Election Training Institute.
The interim government has announced that the 13th parliamentary election will be held in February.
Based on that announcement, the EC had earlier planned to declare the election schedule in the first week of December.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin had also said that the schedule might be announced in the second week of December.
This time, a referendum will also be held alongside the 13th parliamentary election.
As part of the preparation for both events, the Commission held a national-level meeting on Saturday at the EC headquarters in Agargaon.
Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed was present at the meeting.
Akhtar Ahmed said, “From 11:30am, we were in a meeting on election preparations.”
Regarding the announcement of the schedule, he said, “The Election Commission has not yet been able to determine the date for announcing the election schedule.”
However, he asserted that the EC is fully prepared to conduct the election.
Urging all to refrain from spreading misinformation regarding the polls, he said, “I request everyone to provide accurate information… preparations for the election are certainly progressing strongly.”
At the workshop titled “Introduction to the Representation of the People Order 1972 (with latest amendments); Code of Conduct for Political Parties and Candidates in Parliamentary Elections 2008 (with latest amendments); and the Election Officers (Special Provisions) Act 1991,” Akhtar Ahmed delivered a detailed presentation.
The training programme was organised by UNDP and the Reporters Forum for Election and Democracy (RFED).
Earlier in the morning, Election Commissioner Abdul Rahmanel Masud joined a separate session of the workshop with journalists.
He discussed topics including the Constitution, the significance of the national parliamentary election and the role of the Election Commission, laws related to controlling election-related offenses such as the CRPC, CPC, and Evidence Act, and procedures for resolving election-related cases.
