The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Awami League yesterday decided not to hold the dialogue with the Election Commission (EC) scheduled for today as a number of party's presidium members including Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury and Tofail Ahmed fell ill.

AL Acting president Zillur Rahman told this while talking to the reporters at his Gulshan residence.

Zillur said, " We have decided not to attend in the dialogue because some of our presidium members including Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury and Tofail Ahmed have fallen ill. We have decided to go for the September 9 meeting and discuss all the issues at a time."

Reiterating the demand for the withdrawal of all the cases filed against party chief Sheikh Hasina and her unconditional release and said that the party men were determined to participate in the national election only under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina.

"We will sit with the EC only once on Sept 9, to press home our demands for complete withdrawal of state of emergency, holding of the national election ahead of any other polls, cancellation of the Representation of the People order Ordinance-2008 (RPO) and making easier of the conditions for registration of the political parties,'" Zillur added.

Earlier, on August 20, AL sent a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) seeking for a date to discuss upazila issues, parliamentary polls and other related matters.

In response to this letter, EC fixed September 4 for holding dialogue with AL leaders.

Both the EC and AL reached an agreement to hold another round of dialogue to discuss the recently promulgated RPO on September 9.

Zillur also informed that his party would hold meeting with the 14 party allies today and tomorrow.

Ashraul Islam, Acting General Secretary of AL, added that the party leaders had already met with Rashed Khan Menon, president of Workers Party Bangladesh, and Nurul Islam of Ganotantri Party over theses issues.

Asked if Sheikh Hasina's date of return has been confirmed, he said that she would return home in the first week of October. But "I personally imagine that she might come back earlier once her treatment cycle is completed."