The Election Commission will announce the schedule for the parliamentary elections in October if the polls are to be held in December, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin has stated.
However, he noted that conducting local government elections in June would be infeasible under the updated voter list.
Speaking at an event marking the transition of the executive committee of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Association at the ETI building in Agargaon on Monday (24 February), the CEC addressed several electoral concerns.
Commenting on issues surrounding voter registration, he remarked, "Many people in the country had enlisted themselves in the Rohingya relief list in anticipation of aid, but they are now unable to attain Bangladeshi citizenship."
On the national elections, Nasir Uddin affirmed the commission’s target of holding the polls in December, requiring the schedule to be announced in October.
He added, "Given that the tenure of the consensus commission is six months, we must wait for this period to reach an understanding."
The CEC assured that necessary reforms for a free and fair election were being undertaken.
"We are committed to implementing the essential legal amendments, and once the laws are revised, the rules and regulations must also be updated. Our preparations will not be hindered. We are unified in our approach and have no personal or external agenda that might impede progress," he asserted.
Addressing the complexities posed by the Rohingya crisis in voter registration, he said, "We are working to prevent Rohingyas from being included in the voter list. However, we have found instances where local residents have voluntarily registered as Rohingyas in hopes of receiving aid. There have also been cases of intermarriage between Rohingyas and Bangladeshis, with husbands and wives belonging to different nationalities."
The event was presided over by outgoing RFID president Ekramul Haque Sayem and attended by four election commissioners, the senior secretary of the Election Commission Secretariat, the director general of ETI, and other senior officials of the commission.
