President should be polls-time govt chief

Khelafat Andolon yesterday proposed President Abdul Hamid to become the chief of all-party polls-time government for the sake of holding a free, fair and participatory general election.

The Islamist party said this while holding a dialogue with the president at Bangabhaban on formation of the new election commission.

“We have proposed the president to form an all-party polls-time government…The polls time administration will assist the EC to hold the next parliamentary election,” its secretary general Ahmed Abdul Kader told reporters after the hour-long meeting. He led a 12-member delegation.

This is the first time any political party urged the president to become the chief of polls-time interim administration.

On formation of the next EC, Khelafat Andolon, a component in the BNP-led 20-party alliance, proposed to formulate a law in line with the constitution.

“If it is not possible to enact the law, in that case, we have recommended that the president forms a five-member search committee headed by a retired chief justice on consultation with the political parties to form the EC,” he said.

It also proposed to include a non-partisan Islamic scholar and a woman as election commissioners.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, another component in the alliance, also held an hour-long dialogue with the president on the same issue, its vice-president Abdur Rob Yusufi told reporters.

Tenure of the present EC will expire in February.