If we want elections in December, announce the schedule by October: CEC!

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin said that if the 13th National Parliament election is to be held in December, the schedule must be announced by October. He also emphasized on completing all vote-related activities quickly.

He said this while participating in a talk by the Reporters Forum for Elections and Democracy (RFED), an organization of journalists of the Election Commission of Bangladesh (ECB), on Sunday (January 26) morning.

The CEC said, "The voter update work has started ahead of time with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). We want to save the government's money."

However, he noted that the EC is facing obstacles in its work due to the lack of 'rules of the game'. He said that important tasks such as registering political parties and delimiting parliamentary boundaries cannot be done due to legal obstacles. He said that amending the law is now very urgent.

Regarding the EC's authority to delimit the boundaries, he said, "This is the sole jurisdiction of the EC. No one's interference in delimiting the boundaries and updating the voter list is acceptable in any way. If the Parliamentary Standing Committee becomes the face of the matter, the EC's power will be reduced."

Meanwhile, the BNP had said on January 14 that they wanted parliamentary elections between July-August. However, the CEC said at the time, "We do not want to get involved in any political statements. We will work according to the laws, rules, regulations and the system."

Finally, EC Abdur Rahmanel Machud said in Patuakhali, "It is expected that the law and order situation will be good if the elections are held by the end of this year or in January next year."