Election Commission senior secretary Akhtar Ahmed on Monday said that preparations for the forthcoming Jatiya Sangsad elections were about 90 per cent complete and were expected to be finalised within the next week.
Speaking to reporters at the EC headquarters in Dhaka, Akhtar outlined the progress on polling centre arrangements, registration of political parties, and accreditation of election observers.
The final list of polling centres, he said, has been prepared, totalling 42,761 stations across the 300 constituencies in the 64 districts for some 12.72 crore voters.
In these polling centres across the country, there would be 1,15,137 rooms designated for male voters and 1,29,602 for female voters, making a combined total of 2,44,739 polling rooms.
The EC secretary said that about 14 temporary centres had also been planned, which would together add an extra 12,000 rooms approximately.
Each polling room would, on average, cater to approximately 3,000 voters, with adjustments to be made as necessary, the EC secretary said.
In the 12th JS elections held on January 7, 2024, there were a total of 42,148 voting stations with 2,61,407 polling rooms across the country.
The EC secretary acknowledged that the commission had fallen slightly behind schedule in two areas 鈥� political party registration and observer organisation accreditation.
He said that field verification was under way for 22 political parties deemed eligible for consideration, with the process expected to be completed within the current week.
The same timeline applies to the registration of observer groups, he said.
Summing up the EC preparations progress, secretary Akhtar said, 鈥業f we convey our work plan progresss in percentage terms, I would say that around 90 to 95 per cent is complete.鈥�
Once the remaining two tasks are finished within the next week, our preparations will be 100 per cent done, he said
Responding to questions about the Bangladesh Nationalist Party鈥檚 objection to the amendment to Article 20 of the Representation of the People Order, which would restrict alliance partners from contesting under a common electoral symbol, Akhtar Ahmed said that the RPO had already been approved by the advisory council and forwarded to the law ministry.
The commission would decide on any further action once it receives legal advice.
On the BNP鈥檚 recent meeting with the EC regarding the issue, Akhtar said that the party had also contacted, or was expected to contact, the law ministry.
鈥榃hatever decision is reached will be one that is acceptable to all,鈥� he said.
Akhtar Ahmed also explained that the RPO amendments had been considered under five broad criteria: proposals that were unanimously acceptable, those requiring minor linguistic or numerical adjustments, those needing political consensus, those deemed unnecessary given existing laws, and those requiring revisions based on the commission鈥檚 own judgement.
Of these, three categories 鈥� the universally acceptable proposals, those needing minor adjustments, and those recommended by the commission itself 鈥� were prioritised for finalising the amendment, he said.
Regarding the allocation of the water lily symbol to the National Citizen Party, EC seretary clarified that it could not be granted as the symbol was not listed in the official gazette schedule.
鈥楲egally, we cannot allocate a symbol that is not included in the schedule,鈥� he said.
Asked about the possibility of holding a referendum, the EC secretary said that the commission had received no information on the matter and therefore could not make any statement.
