The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Chief Election Commissioner Dr ATM Shamsul Huda demurred at the demand for his resignation, saying that anyone could make such pleas.

"Where is the problem? There is no problem (if such demand is made)," he told reporters Sunday, a day after the demand came for the first time, adding that they would go on doing their assigned duties. BNP joint secretary general Goyeswar Chandra Roy Saturday said Huda should resign voluntarily before the demand for his resignation gets momentum as he alleged the CEC has lost neutrality by making 'partisan remarks'.

"Our goal is to hold elections in 2008. We don't want to be confused or derailed. We're working as per our determined goal. Many will say many things. We're doing our work," he said when asked if this demand could hamper their work.

He, however, declined to comment whether his recent comment about the BNP constitution would influence the sub-judicial matter of holding electoral dialogue between the Election Commission and BNP. The dialogue is still pending due to detained BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia's writ petition in the High Court challenging the EC letter inviting Maj (retd) Hafizuddin of the reformist faction of the party to join the dialogue.

"I won't comment anything in this regard," CEC Huda said when asked if his much-talked-about remark would affect the trial process. He was talking to the journalists after holding the 100th meeting of the EC in the afternoon.

The CEC stated on a private TV channel that the expulsion of Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, whom the BNP chairperson and ex-PM expelled from the party just before her arrest on September 3, 2007, was not in accordance with the BNP constitution.

Secretary general of the Khaleda-loyal faction of the immediate-past ruling party Khandker Delwar Hossain also Saturday blasted CEC Huda for his reported remarks.

"We have noticed that the Election Commission and its chief have been taking heinous steps one after another to divide BNP and make a few disgruntled men as BNP leaders," he said.