AL to press EC for holding both polls as per ‘roadmap’
At second round talks with the Election Commission this week, Awami League will press hard for national election before upazila polls, full withdrawal of the state of emergency and changes in some new electoral provisions.
"We want both the parliamentary and upazila polls, but they should be held as per the roadmap," AL Presidium member Suranjit Sengupta told The Daily Star yesterday.
He said the EC must hold the general election first if it is to avoid “breaching its own electoral roadmap”.
In the EC roadmap announced last year, the time marked down for national election is June 15 to December 31 and that for upazila polls is between November 3 and December 31. The commission has lately announced it plans to hold first-phase upazila polls on October 23.
Suranjit said they would seek a consensus with the EC at the talks on September 9. But if the commission refuses to change its plan, his party would resort to street agitation to press home its demand for national election first.
The party will also demand scrapping of the provisions that introduce no-vote option and disallow political parties having front organisations and chapters abroad.
"No-vote option is not a practical idea. The banning of foreign chapters of a party is unconstitutional and undemocratic," observed the AL presidium member.
The EC should not deprive the Bangladeshi expatriates of their political rights. It is contradictory especially when the commission is registering them (expats) as voters, he added.
AL will ask for the state of emergency to be withdrawn. Otherwise, it believes, the political parties will not be able to hold national councils to prepare for registration.
"We have plans to organise council to amend our [party] constitution to meet the criteria for registration with the commission," said AL central leader Col (retd) Faruk Khan.
He said they need complete lifting of the state of emergency to facilitate gathering of around 15,000 councillors.
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