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Bangladesh EC on right track of election roadmap: Commissioner

By NNN-BSS

Dhaka : Commissioner of the Bangladesh Election Commission (EC) Brigadier General (retd) Sakhawat Hossain Monday said the EC is firmly going ahead for next general elections according to its roadmap.

“So far, we did not go out of track of the roadmap announced by the commission. Preparation of voters list with photographs was a breakthrough for the nation towards holding a free, fair and credible election,” he said.

The EC commissioner was talking to reporters at his Sher-e- Bangla Nagar office on the activities carried out by the EC after its reconstitution about one year back.

“We are not over confident. The commission will be confident when it will be able to hold a free and fair election paving the way for establishing a democratic government in the country,” he said.

Sakhawat Hossain said the prime and foremost objective of the EC is to hold the next general election according to the announced roadmap and the commission is going forward for the
election under the plan.

However, the commission has a plan to hold the elections of the city corporations and pourasabhas, where elections are due, as a test case through the new voter list with photographs, he said.

He said the commission also has a plan to hold the union parishad (UP) elections in the middle of 2008. He said the commission would take decision for holding parliamentary election and upazila council election at the same time if such proposal comes from the government.

He acknowledged that the voters’ registration work began a little bit later. However, he said, all are pleased to see that the work is progressing very smoothly and so far 19,518,912 voters were registered.

Two crore (20 million) more voters would be registered in the list within a day or two as registration work is progressing in different parts of the country simultaneously, he said.

The EC commissioner claimed that the cordial dialogue with the political parties was another success of the commission, saying it was possible due to neutral position of the commission.

He hoped that the matter of dialogue with BNP would be resolved soon and the commission would be able to prepare the draft of the electoral reforms very shortly.

Sakhawat Hossain said the commission would start demarcation of constituencies in January and this time the commission would set the boundaries of 18 to 20 constituencies.

He said the commission would talk to the political leaders of the constituencies before the demarcation.