Desk Reports :
Election Commissioner Md. Anwarul Islam Sarkar has said that there is no ‘uncertainty’ regarding the 13th National Parliament election and the environment for the election is ‘100% favorable’.
He made the comment in response to a question from journalists at the Election Building in Agargaon in the capital on Sunday.
In response to the question of how favorable the voting environment is for the EC so far, Anwarul Islam said, “We think it is 100 percent favorable.”
When asked whether the situation was favorable for the election in light of the ongoing violence across the country, he said, “We don’t see any unfavorable situation so far that the vote won’t take place.”
The EC also gave a positive answer to the question of whether the elections would be held on time.
He said, ‘We have already given our roadmap. The roadmap is talking.’
When asked what date in February the elections will be held, he said, “The election date cannot be announced before the schedule is announced.”
The Election Commission (EC) released the final list of 300 parliamentary constituencies redrawn on Thursday night. It increased one seat in Gazipur district from five to six and reduced one seat in Bagerhat district from four to three. In all, minor changes were made to 46 seats.
Protests broke out in various parts of the country after the final list of redrawing the boundaries of the National Parliament constituencies was published.
When asked about this, Anwarul Islam said, ‘We still don’t know who is protesting about the border, why they are doing it, what they are trying to say. And these issues are questions of regionalism; political issues. The whole thing will be understood after some more time.’
He said, “The commission has taken this decision and published this gadget with utmost caution, impartiality and rationality. Due to the geographical features of our country, it is very difficult to determine the boundaries 100 percent accurately.”
Responding to a question about finalizing the amendments to the Representation of the People Order, 1972 (RPO) and sending it to the Law Ministry, Anwarul Islam Sarkar said, “What we, the RPO, have proposed will be finalized only after the Law Ministry vetting it. The reason for going to the Law Ministry is that whether there is any contradiction with other laws, whether there is any conflict with the Constitution, whether there is any conflict with various existing issues – they will finalize these issues after seeing these issues.”
He also said that he plans to hold discussions with stakeholders about the election at the end of this month.
Regarding the registration of the new political party, he said, “Almost all the reports at the grassroots level have been consolidated. We will complete the remaining work within a few days. Hopefully, it will be finalized for public notification within a week. Then there will be one more step left.”
“Suppose a political party has been able to fulfill the conditions of registration. If we decide to grant them registration, then a notification will be issued for them. The notification will be issued because they may have objections to something. Then it will be finalized.”
