Election Commission begins talks with political parties

The Election Commission is holding the discussion with the parties on 11 agenda items

The Election Commission (EC) led by AMM Nasir Uddin has sat for dialogue with registered political parties for the first time ahead of the national parliamentary election slated for February.

Representatives of six parties attended the discussion held on Thursday in the conference room of the EC headquarters in Agargaon.

Eleven items are on the agenda for the discussions between the EC and the parties. Chief Election Commissioner Nasir is presiding over the dialogue.

For the first day of the dialogue, the EC invited 12 parties in two sessions: morning and afternoon.

The parties called for the dialogue between 10am and noon are: Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Bangladesh Congress, Bangladesh Muslim League, National People’s Party (NPP), Bangladesh Khilafat Andolan and Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam Bangladesh.

11 TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

1. What candidates and political parties must do before the announcement of the election schedule.

2. Compliance with the code of conduct after the announcement of the schedule.

3. Agreeing to a declaration of commitment between the EC and political parties per the code.

4. Agreeing to a declaration of commitment between the candidates and the returning officers.

5. Implementation of expatriate voting through postal ballots.

6. Appointment and management of electoral agents after the announcement of the schedule.

7. Prevention of misinformation and disinformation.

8. Control of the misuse of AI in elections.

9. Not violating communal harmony and not discriminating based on gender, race, or religion.

10. Not using religious places of worship for political campaigning.

11. Not hurting the feelings of opponents, or causing offence based on gender or religion with AI-edited videos.

The EC is scheduled to hold a dialogue between 2pm and 4pm with the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSaD), Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal (BaSaD), Revolutionary Workers Party of Bangladesh (RWPB), Bangladesh Nationalist Front (BNF) and Bangladesh Nationalist Movement (BNM).

The EC has now entered the final phase of dialogue with political parties after completing preparatory work, including forming the voter list, delimitation of parliamentary constituencies, finalisation of polling centres and registration of observer organisations and parties.

The EC started exchanging views with stakeholders last September as part of election preparations. Topics such as the law and order situation, referendum, voting symbols for alliances, voting procedures for expatriate Bangladeshis, reform and compliance of laws and rules, and creating a level playing field for everyone were discussed.

The EC is expected to announce the election schedule in early December to hold the 13th parliamentary election in the first half of February.

Currently, 53 parties, including the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, are registered with the EC which is in the process of registering three new parties, including the NCP.

Outside of these 56 parties, the registration of the Awami League has been suspended and the registration of three old parties has been scrapped.