The Election Commission is inviting 12 political parties to attend its opening day’s sessions of the electoral dialogue, starting on Thursday (November 13) next, ahead of the 13th parliamentary election.
The commission is set to hold talks with registered political parties before the election schedule is expected to be announced in early December.
There will be two sessions on the opening day— the first from 10:00am to 12:00pm, and the second from 2:00pm to 4:00pm.
According to the EC’s final list, the 12 parties are Liberal Democratic Party-LDP, Bangladesh Congress, Bangladesh Muslim League, National People's Party, Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan, Jamiyate Ulamaye Islam Bangladesh will be invited to Thursday morning.
Communist Party of Bangladesh-CPB, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-JSD, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal-Basod, Revolutionary Workers Party of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Nationalist Front-BNF and Bangladesh Nationalist Movement-BNM will be invited to join the afternoon session on Thursday.
The EC is holding the dialogue with registered political parties and the names of invitees will be informed in phases, said EC senior secretary Akhtar Ahmed at a press briefing in the city’s Nirbachan Bhaban on Tuesday.
He said the Commission waited for the code of conduct to begin the talks. “Now that we have received the code, we intend to start the dialogue from the day after tomorrow (November 13). We’ve begun preparations and will soon finalise the list of invitees,” he said.
When asked if the dialogue will start on November 13 — the day Awami League has announced a lockdown — he said, “Inshallah, we’ll hold our dialogue on November 13 as planned.”
Asked about the agenda of the dialogue, he said discussions will cover the Representation of the People Order (RPO), the updated code of conduct and other measures to ensure a fair election.
When asked who would be invited, Akhtar Ahmed said the Commission will hold talks with registered political parties and further details about the invitees will be announced in phases.
The dialogue with political parties is considered the Commission’s last major task before the election schedule to be announced in early December.
This time the political parties are being invited in groups due to time constraints before the announcement of the election schedule.
The Election Commission traditionally holds talks with registered political parties before each national election. Each party was usually invited to join the dialogue separately.
Currently, there are 53 registered political parties, excluding the Awami League, whose registration remains suspended.
Besides, November 04 last initially recognised three new parties, including NCP, as registered parties and published notifications seeking objections by November 12, if any, against them.
So, this time the number of registered parties would finally be 56 with three new ones.
In late September 2025, the Commission opened a series of electoral dialogues with different stakeholders amid talks with civil society representatives on September 28.
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Later, the EC held separate dialogues with the representatives of teachers, senior journalists from different media outlets, election experts and election observers.
In a bid to conduct the next election in free, participatory and fair manners, the EC sat in a views-exchange with different law enforcement agencies and intelligences on October 20 and with top government officials, including secretaries of key ministries, directors general of important agencies on October 30 last.
The Commission either completed or almost finished all important tasks, including amendment to the electoral laws, delimitation of constituencies, updating the voter lists, finalisation of polling stations, registration of new political parties and registration of election observers.