The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Gazipur

Election has to be held very quickly since a "non-elected government cannot run for long", Chief Election Commissioner Dr ATM Shamsul Huda said Saturday. The CEC made his latest observations about the interim administration and the urgency of holding the stalled polls while addressing a view-exchange meeting at Shafiuddin Sarkar Academy in Tongi where he inaugurated the photo voter list and national identity (NID) card programme on Saturday "Non-elected government can't continue for long. So the elections will have to be arranged quickly," he told the meeting. The Chief Election Commissioner said that there would be a few days delay in preparing the voter list at 11 places following the natural calamity, but the delay wouldn't be any problem in implementing the election roadmap.

As per the Election Commission-announced roadmap, the photo voter list would be completed by October next and national elections held by December 2008.

Caretaker-government authorities, however, have said that the polls could be held even before the deadline if preparations completed early.

About the tangle over inviting the reformist BNP faction to the EC-sponsored dialogue on electoral reforms, the CEC opined that a third party now could help out and wondered why the protestors not going to court.

"The decision of a third party is needed now… Why they aren't going to the court?" he posed the question to the newsmen when asked about the objection of Khandakar Delwar Hossain-led faction of BNP regarding inviting the Safur-Hafiz faction of the party to sit for electoral dialogue with the EC.Asked about the neutrality of the EC that has been questioned because of inviting the pro-reform faction of BNP, the CEC said the faction might raise the same question if they would have invited the Delwar-led faction, which is recognized as loyal to detained party chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia.

"The rules and regulations will be prepared in this regard in consultation with the political parties," CEC Huda said when asked what would be done about the parties' registration if reforms within the political parties do not take place or they remain divided even before elections.

A total of 74 voter-registration centres have been set up in 12 wards of Tongi municipality, and in the first phase, the task of preparing voter list started at 22 centres in four wards on Saturday Presided by deputy commissioner Syed Mizanur Rahman, the meeting was attended by the head of Gazipur army camp Lt. Con. Zakir Hossain, local elite and journalists.