The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The Election Commission will publish the draft voters' list of the whole country by June 30 this year.

Disclosing this, Chief Election Commissioner Dr ATM Shamsul Huda yesterday said there should not be any doubt about holding of the general elections within December this year as per the roadmap. The polls will be held "even earlier if possible", he added.

The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) also expressed the hope to conclude the pending dialogue with the BNP on electoral reform by March 31 after the completion of legal process.

He brushed aside the possibility of holding dialogue with both factions of the BNP saying the Election Commission (EC) did not talk to any fractions of a political party previously when it had sit with as many 16 political parties.

The CEC said this, while talking to journalists after inspecting progress in the preparation of voters' list with photograph at two centres of Payia upazila under Chittagong district, according to reports received in the capital last evening.

Terming the EC as absolutely neutral, he said there was no reason for the Commission to deviate from its policy by favouring any particular party. "The two factions of BNP have locked into infighting and the Election Commission had nothing to do with it. They either should solve their problems by themselves or wait for the High Court verdict (in this regard)," he said.

Asked why the two factions of BNP are not being invited to join the dialogue on electoral reforms, he said if the two groups were called it would be tantamount to doing a favour to the BNP. "If we do that then what about the four factions of the Jatiya Party, five of the Islami Okiya Jote (IOJ) and two groups of Workers Party?" he posed the question, adding that 13 of the 16 political parties invited to the talks in the previous phase were divided into more than one faction.

"But the Commission did not sit with factions of any party and this is our policy," he said.

He said EC does not want to lose its neutrality by doing favour to the BNP, but the election rules would not be finalised without dialogue with the party (BNP).

Dr Huda said, "We will not talk to any party except the mainstream one whether it is big or small. The mainstream of BNP will be determined by the High court verdict. We'll have to wait until then."

He said the EC would be decentralised and its offices would be set up at upazila-level with sufficient workforce.

He said there was no problem in voter registration here (in Patiya) and it is going on in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), where the voters' list would be completed by the last week of April.

Divisional Deputy Election Commissioner Ejharul Haq and District Election Officer Dulal Talukder accompanied the CEC during the visit.