BNP to get call before Awami League from EC for dialogue

A dialogue is due later this month when Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda will sit with registered political parties to discuss the roadmap to the general elections.

This time, the BNP delegation gets to meet him before the ruling Awami League as the commission is following a descending order to invite parties.

The BNP falls on No. 7 while the Awami League on No. 6 on a list based on the date of parties’ registration done with the commission. 

Bangladesh Nationalist Front or BNF will be called on the first day as it is on No. 42, the last serial on the list. Registration of Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Freedom Party have been cancelled bringing down the number to 40.

The BNP boycotted the last national election in 2014 and sits outside parliament now.

“Six parties will be invited in August and the rest will be summoned after Sept 10,” said Helaluddin Ahmed, acting secretary to the Election Commission. 

In 2011, the erstwhile Election Commission invited the parties in alphabetical order. An ascending order was followed the next year when the BNP boycotted the dialogue.

Election experts, former election commissioners and female leaders will be called in October, said the EC secretary.

The commission is due to hold dialogues with representatives of electronic and print media on Aug 16 and Aug 17. At least 60 editors and senior journalists would be summoned then.