The schedule for the 10th national election will be announced on Monday evening amid the Opposition’s threats to boycott the polls.
Published : 25 Nov 2013, 02:39 PM
Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad told reporters after a meeting that he would announce the date for the parliamentary polls in a televised speech to the nation at 7.30 pm.
“The nation will be addressed this evening. You’ll know the details then. The polls schedule, too, will be announced then,” he said.
State-run Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar will telecast the speech.
The Opposition has threatened to cripple the country if the polls schedule was announced without installing a non-party government to oversee it.
Until Sunday, the Election Commission favoured Jan 5, 2014 as the date of the national election.
A draft schedule was prepared as per the date and an informal meeting was held over it on Sunday.
In the draft schedule, Jan 5 was fixed as the election date, Dec 6 as the last date for submission of nomination, Dec 8 and 9 were fixed for scrutiny of nominations, and Dec 17 as the last date for nomination withdrawal.
CEC Ahmad held meetings with other Election Commissioners and officials on Monday to fix the dates. EC officials have suggested waiting until evening to know whether any changes had been made to the draft.
Meanwhile, recording of the televised speech was started at around Monday noon at the EC office.
Former CEC ATM Shamsul Huda had announced schedule of the ninth national election during an address to the nation.
On Friday, Commissioner Shah Nawaz had said schedule for the 10th national election would be announced within Monday.
The BNP on the same day had threatened to ‘cripple’ Bangladesh if the schedule was announced.
Security measures have been ratcheted up around the EC.
A large number of law enforcing agency members were seen deployed in the area.
“The EC will announce the schedule. As per their (the EC) requirement, 150 law enforcing agency members have been deployed,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Tejgaon division’s Additional Deputy Commissioner Wahidul Islam told bdnews24.com.