Chief Election Commission KM Nurul Huda has said he believes the parliamentary elections will be different from all the polls in the past considering the circumstances.
Published : 14 Nov 2018, 12:13 AM
He hopes the system of elections under the ruling party will get a ‘stable’ shape if the next polls can be held successfully with all the parties, and it will ‘make history’.
“A new history will be made through you,” he told the returning officers in Dhaka on Tuesday while briefing them on electoral laws ahead of the ballot slated for Dec 30.
“Because if this election is successfully held, then all polls will be conducted with the ruling party in power and without the dissolution of parliament. A stable condition will be created,” he said.
“The circumstances of the election this year are truly different. Elections had been held with the presidential government, military-controlled one or caretaker. But this time the (elected) government will be in power,” he said.
“You can say that the 2014 election was held under the government. But not all the parties had joined that election,” the CEC explained.
The BNP and its allies fear the ruling party will influence election officials, law enforcers and local administrations if the election is not held with a nonpartisan government in power.
The CEC warned the returning officers against any action that can make the election questionable.
“We must present an acceptable election to the country. And you bear the utmost responsibility for this,” he said.
As many 66 returning officers attended the briefing. They included deputy commissioners from 64 districts and the divisional commissioners of Dhaka and Chattogram.
NO PROTOCOL FOR MINISTERS
EC spokesman SM Asaduzzaman told reporters that the ministers will not be able to use protocol while campaigning for candidates before the election.
“They will face action if they violate this ban,” he added.
The EC told the returning officers in the briefing that the MPs, including ministers, and other VVIPs will only enjoy security facilities, not protocol, during the campaign.
The army will be deployed to provide EC officials with technical help at the polling stations with electronic voting machines or EVMs, Election Commissioner Rafiqul Islam said.
CEC Huda had earlier said EVMs would be used at some places in the urban areas in the next election.