The overall focus of the Election Commission is on the national election, not any other election, said Election Commissioner Brig Gen (Retd) Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah on Sunday.
“I would like to say categorically that our overall focus is on the national election…. any event that may hamper the national election should not come before,” he said at the Nirbachan Bhaban in the capital.
Md Sanaullah said this while replying to a question whether this commission will hold the local body elections as a test case before the next national election from reporters after the commission’s meeting chaired by Chief Election Commission AMM Nasir Uddin.
“We’ve discussed it, since it is we who will have to conduct these elections finally,” said the commissioner.
He said the commission thinks that it is not realistic. “It is not possible to conduct all elections together or all the local body elections together. The commission is moving towards the national election,” he said.
Md Sanaullah said the present reality is that an electoral reform initiative now continues and it will need to change the laws and rules if necessary in line with the possible reform proposals, which will also take time.
Besides, weather is also a factor that needs to be taken into consideration in the context of Bangladesh, he said.
“The commission has to be given a reaction time to hold the national election. So, any event that may hamper the national election should not come before,” he added.
He, however, said the commission will implement the decision whatever would be taken by the government, the ministry concerned and all the authorities concerned, considering these aspects.
“But our stance is that it is not possible to conduct all elections (parliamentary election and local body elections) together or all local government elections together,” he said.
The present commission in the meeting also decided to take an initiative to keep the national identity (NID) activities under the Election Commission, cancelling the national identity registration act 2023 and restoring the related act of 2010, he said.
He said though the national identity registration act 2023 was passed it has not been enforced yet.
The previous election commission (headed by Kazi Habibul Awal) accepted a proposal to cancel this law and revive the previous law, he said.
As per the proposal, a demi official (D.O.) letter was sent from the commission to the government in this regard on September 10, 2024. “Today, (in the meeting) we’ve taken a decision to officially start talks through letters,” said the election commissioner.
Over the electoral voting machine (EVMs), he said the commission decided to take over the maintenance of the existing EVMs, though the use of such machines is uncertain in future.
The EVM project (timeframe) ended in June last, but the commission has not taken over the responsibility of maintenance of the EVMs, he said.
Noting that the door-to-door voter updating process will kick off in the country this month, Sanaullah said the commission will formally open the updating activities on January 20.
About the special forms for enrolment of voters in special areas (56 Upazilas in the country) to keep Rohingya and foreign nationals out of the electoral rolls, he said the common people are facing difficulties in filling the form, which is causing delay in the voter registration activities there. “So, we’ve in principle taken a decision to ease the special form,” he said.