BNP will attend Election Commission discussion

The BNP will accept the Election Commission’s invitation to send a delegation to discussions on Sunday, said the party’s Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

“We are forming a draft of discussion topics for the meeting. We won’t say much more on the topic at this time. But our delegation will go to the Election Commission on the fifteenth,” Rizvi said at a news conference on Thursday.

The Election Commission began hearing opinions regarding the upcoming Eleventh Parliamentary Elections through meetings with civil society members on Jul 31.

On Aug 16 and 17, it met with media representatives. On Aug 24, it began meeting with representatives from the 40 registered parties.

The commission had initially scheduled the meetings with the BNP for Oct 12 and the Awami League for Oct 15. But the BNP requested a change of date and its meeting was re-scheduled to Oct 15, while the Awami League talks were postponed to Oct 18.

The BNP has been a regular critic of the AKM Nurul Huda-led EC since its formation. BNP Standing Committee member Moudud Ahmed has called the meeting ‘eyewash’.

Despite this, the party will send representatives to the EC meeting to present its ideas for a ‘free and fair election’ and raise important issues regarding the country’s current political situation.

According to BNP officials, the ten-member delegation to the EC meeting will be led by Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir