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The Election Commission has been facing both seen and unseen challenges in preparing for the upcoming elections and addressing demands, said chief election commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin on Saturday.

‘These obstacles are not visible from the outside, but we are constantly having to deal with them,’ he said.

He was addressing the ‘Election Officials’ Conference 2025’ organised by the Bangladesh Election Commission Officers’ Association at the Nirbachan Bhaban in the capital’s Agargaon.

He said, ‘Working in Bangladesh is very difficult. Especially in the situation the country is now going through, some groups find it very convenient to get things done but for the majority it is difficult. That is where the country stands at the moment.’

The CEC said that the EC would neither issue any illegal instructions to its officials nor would it ask them to favour anyone in the next national election scheduled for February 2026.

Nasir Uddin instructed the election officers to stay neutral and make sure that they performed properly,  saying that they wanted to return home after fulfilling this commitment.

Noting that chief adviser Muhammad Yunus has full confidence in the Election Commission, the CEC assured the officials that no unlawful directives would be issued from the commission and no instruction would be given to anyone to favour any political side.

Describing the current state of the country as an ‘extraordinary situation’ ahead of the upcoming elections, the CEC urged the officials to work with utmost responsibility.

Election commissioner retired Brigadier General Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah at the conference said, ‘Among the reasons behind the July uprising, one of the most important was the absence of good elections in the country.’

‘If we try to exclude all other reasons, ultimately the final cause that stood out was nothing but the rotten elections or making a farce in the name of elections,’ he said.

Sanaullah observed that Bangladesh as a state and as a nation now stood at a crossroads of time. In the history of a nation, such crucial moments and situations come very rarely.

‘If anyone voluntarily becomes a party tool, they will bear the responsibility themselves and the commission will not provide any protection (to them),’ he said.

He assured that there would be no pressure, no undue instructions from the current Election Commission for manipulations. The elections must be conducted following the law in a fair and neutral manner.

Another election commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Mashud stressed that there was no alternative to holding a good election, observing that there remained a widespread reluctance towards elections while a lack of trust prevailed in  the Election Commission.

EC senior secretary Akhtar Ahmed said that they would hold a free, fair and impartial election, taking the election to a new height in line with the international standard. 

Talking about two major challenges for the next election, he said, ‘One is the misuse of artificial intelligence and the other is our out-of-country voting and the postal voting system.’