Staff Reporter:
The 12th parliament election’s schedule is likely to be announced in the first half of the current month as the Election Commission (EC) finds the prevailing situation favorable to go ahead with election prepara-tion.
“Favorable environment exists for announcement of the 12th parliament elections scheduled in the first half of the current month. It is a tradition to pay a courtesy call on President before announcement of polls schedule and the EC has a schedule to do so today (Thursday),” Election Commission (EC) secre-tary Md Jahangir Alam said yesterday.
During the call on, the EC will apprise the President of the election preparations, he said, adding that the EC will listen whether there are any advices and instructions from the President.
“It is absolutely the EC’s jurisdiction to announce polls schedule,” he told journalists at ‘Nirbachan Bha-ban’ at Agargaon.
Jahangir Alam said EC’s preparation is now at final state as it is telling time and again that it is deter-mined to hold the next national election within the constitutional timeframe. The polls will be held in the last week of December, 2023 or the first week of January next year, he added.
Replying to a question about foreign election observers, the EC secretary said so far three foreign organ-izations have confirmed them (EC) through e- mail. The organizations include – one from the USA that has already conducted pre-assessment, he said, adding that recently a Commonwealth team seeks
appointment of the EC.
He said foreign observer organizations can still apply through Bangladesh foreign ministry’s selected cell as the last date for application is November 21. “Actual number of foreign observers can be known after that date,” he added.
Replying to another question, he said election materials will be sent to district level in phases.
The EC secretary said adequate number of law enforcers will be deployed in the field level during the election and the home ministry will issue circular in this regard so that voters can cast their votes freely and in a fair manner.
