Parties get into full swing of polls
BNP nomination seekers collect forms from the party's central and city offices in the capital yesterday as BNP formally began its nomination process.
Photo: STAR
Political parties are gearing up for the December 29 elections as candidate nomination and seat-sharing negotiations by both major alliances are in full swing despite reservations of the two main parties about electoral rules and upazila polls.
Awami League (AL) has already nominated candidates for almost 300 constituencies but put a hold on finalising nominations as the party continues seat-sharing negotiations with its alliance partners.
Senior AL leaders told The Daily Star the party also holds back final nominations in case some candidates are barred from contesting on legal ground.
Meanwhile, the BNP yesterday started sale of nomination forms, with party leaders using preliminary reports from its internal candidate evaluations and independent surveys to vet nominees.
"We'll nominate candidates based on actions [of candidates] before and after the 1/11 changeover," BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain told reporters yesterday.
Negotiations have also started among BNP-led four-party alliance leaders to decide on seat-sharing arrangements. BNP's largest alliance partner Jamaat-e Islami has yet to start nomination process but has collected a list of possible candidates from across the country.
The AL-led grand alliance partners including Jatiya Party (JP) and Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) were negotiating possible seat-sharing with the AL when this report was filed at 8:00 last night.
Both BNP and AL are trying to expand own electoral alliance to ensure victory in the parliamentary polls.
However, despite taking significant steps in nomination process, both the parties have serious reservations about electoral rules and the upazila poll schedule.
The BNP remains steadfast in its demand to repeal the 91(E) clause of the amended Representation of the People Order (RPO) and withdrawal of the state of emergency. The party says it won't go to the polls unless the government meets these two key demands.
On the other hand, the AL demands that the Election Commission cancel the schedule of upazila polls slated for January 22, 2009 and announce after the national elections a fresh date.
As per the upazila polls schedule, the last date of filing nomination is December 13 and the final day for withdrawing nomination is December 31.
Meanwhile, the AL yesterday held meetings with Jatiya Party (JP-Ershad), Liberal Democratic Party and Jatiya Party (Manju) over seat-sharing. The AL will have a meeting with components of the 14-party combine today prior to finalising seat-sharing with its allies in the grand alliance.
A delegation from Ershad-led JP met the AL chief and gave her a list of around 50 probable JP candidates. The JP team included acting chairman Anisul Islam Mahmud, presidium members Kazi Jafar Ahmed and Ziauddin Bablu, and Secretary General Ruhul Amin Hawlader
An LDP team led by its Secretary General Jahanara Begum came to the AL president's Dhanmondi office and handed over to her a list of around 30 intending candidates from the party.
A team from JP (Manju) led by its Secretary General Sheikh Shahidul Islam handed over to Hasina a list of around 10 candidates.
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