The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The Election Commission is likely to announce the tentative dates for the parliamentary and upazila polls on Sunday next.

"We'll formally give our version on upazila and parliamentary elections on Sunday," Chief Election Commissioner Dr ATM Shamsul Huda said this yesterday while talking to reporters after opening a training programme for field-level election officials at the Local Government Training Institute in the city.

He said the Commission is thinking of a possible date for the parliamentary polls but it is not possible to declare the polls schedule right now.

The statement came amid growing demand by major political parties that national polls must be held first.

About upazila election, the CEC said during the latest spell of the dialogue with the political parties, they got so many opinions.

The CEC said there was a little chance for the Commission to declare the election schedule as the voter list had not been finalised yet.

Regarding dialogue with the CEC hoped that the Commission would soon sit with the BNP, as the process of releasing its Chairperson Begum Zia has started rolling on.

"The commission has sent letter inviting BNP to the dialogue. We have heard that the party chief has already secured bail in all cases. "We hope there is no problem to the dialogue now," he said.

The CEC said the third round dialogue with the political parties was held to settle the contentious issues tied to upazila and general polls.

Addressing the inaugural session of the Training of Trainers (ToT) he renewed his office's determination to hold a free, fair and influence-free election.

Dr Huda asked the trainers including EC's field-level officials, returning officers and upazila election officers to go by the laws of the land.

"The returning boss is the 'supreme boss' in the elections. No person or army officer has right to disobey him. A returning officer can seek assistance from the election commissioners or Election Commission secretaries, if necessary," he said.

The CEC asked the returning officers not to listen to any suggestions from any organisations or persons.

He advised the returning officers to stay alert during the ballot counting so that capturing polling centres and hijacking ballot boxes could be averted.

Referring to the August 4 local government elections, he said steps should be in place to shun violence and vote rigging.

According the EC's roadmap, the final countrywide voter list is to be ready by October, the schedule for national election is to be announced in the first week of November, and to be held in the third week of December.

The CEC said they would also brief the media on the outcome of the third-round electoral dialogue with the political parties on Sunday.

Divisional deputy election officers, district election commissioners and about 300 Upazila polls officials are participating in the training programme.