By Mohammad Al-Masum Molla in The Daily Star, July 13, 2017
The Election Commission has asked all the registered political parties to send the name of a person each within seven working days so that it can contact them for an electoral dialogue and other related issues.
The commission is likely to open the dialogue next month which might continue through October.
Copies of a letter signed by EC Secretary Muhammad Abdullah were sent to 40 political parties on Tuesday.
According to the letter, each political party should send the name of a focal person, his phone and fax numbers, e-mail and mailing address to the EC secretariat.
“We’ve requested the political parties to send the names for smooth communication. We sent the letters as we will have more engagement with the political parties in the coming months. The addresses of many party offices might have changed,” the EC secretary told The Daily Star yesterday.
The commission earlier decided to hold talks with the political parties to discuss various important issues.
It will also organise a dialogue with some civil society members at the EC secretariat at 3:00pm on July 31.
Abdullah said the commission primarily decided to invite 50 civil society members, including educationists, intellectuals and former advisers to caretaker governments, to join the talks.
He, however, said the meeting agenda and its modus operandi were yet to be finalised.
The EC recently finalised a roadmap for the next parliamentary polls putting emphasis on seven issues.
The issues are ensuring a level-playing field for all political parties during the polls by amending the Representation of the People Order (RPO), holding dialogues with political parties, demarcation of parliamentary constituencies, updating the voter list, registration of new political parties, setting up polling centres and training of EC officials.
ATM Shamsul Huda-led commission had initiated talks with the registered political parties ahead of the 2008 national polls, with all the parties responding positively.
However, the BNP boycotted the dialogue organised by Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad-led commission ahead of the January 5, 2014 national election demanding parliamentary polls under a non-partisan caretaker administration.
The next Jatiya Sangsad polls are due between late December next year and early January 2019.http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/bangladesh-Election-Comission-sends-letters-to-political-parties-1432411
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