Election Commissioner Anwarul Islam Sarker on Wednesday said the Election Commission will publish a printed work plan by July next for the 13th parliamentary election.

"Hopefully, you will get a printed work plan, which the EC will publish before the (national) election, in June-July,” he told reporters at his Nirbachan Bhaban office in the capital.

He said the Election Commission is moving towards the national election considering the timeline announced by the interim government.

In reply to a question, Anwarul Islam said they are taking preparations for the election considering the early timeframe of December.

“We have been moving forward with our own work plan since taking charge,” he said, adding that the EC has collected information of possible voters, sorted out information of constituencies in terms of administrative unit distribution and started the registration of new political parties.

“We hope we will get a complete voter list by June,” said the Election Commissioner.

He said the EC has targeted to register more than 61.88 lakh new voters in the electoral rolls during this countrywide updating programme.

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More than 43 lakh who applied to be voters have dropped out and some 19.66 lakh other applicants are youths. Besides, some 21.60 lakh dead voters are going to be dropped from the electoral rolls.

Replying to a question, Anwarul Islam said the Election Commission will try its best to incorporate the young people, who would be eligible as voters even till the election schedule declaration, in the electoral rolls so that they can vote in the next general election.  

About the registration of new political parties, he said they have so far received three applications in this regard, but applications would be received till April 20 next.

The Election Commissioner said they would be able to complete the delimitation of constituencies within three months after they get a relevant law amended.     

He said the EC will In the meantime, the constitutional body wants to exchange views ahead of schedule after completing the overall work including updating the voter list, amending the RPO code of conduct, policies, demarcation of boundaries and registration of new parties.

Talks with Parties before Election Schedule

Anwarul Islam said the Election Commission will sit in talks with registered political parties and other stakeholders before the declaration of election schedule.

“We will exchange views with registered political parties, which is in our work plan,” he said, adding that they will hold the dialogues before the declaration of the schedule.

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In reply to a question, the Election Commissioner said the dialogue may be held in August-September or even before.

He said they call the talks as ‘views-exchanges’ with different stakeholders, including political parties, law enforcement agencies and others.