DST News: The Election Commission (EC) is preparing to begin a round of dialogues with registered political parties this week as groundwork for the upcoming national election expected in February. With the formal election schedule likely to be announced in early December, officials say the talks will be held in groups due to limited time.
EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed confirmed on Thursday that the discussions would take about two weeks. “We will start the dialogues next week. Given the tight timeline ahead of announcing the schedule, we will need to invite the parties in groups,” he told UNB. He added that completing the discussions within a single week would not be feasible.
As part of the preparations, the EC has recently updated the electoral code of conduct, following an ordinance that amended the Representation of the People Order, 1972. The new rules, titled Code of Conduct for Political Parties and Candidates in Parliamentary Elections Rules 2025, are set to be published in the official gazette soon. The revised code is expected to be one of the main topics on the dialogue agenda.
Traditionally, the EC invites each party individually for pre-election consultations. However, this year’s format is still uncertain, especially regarding whether parties closely linked to the previous Awami League-led administration will be included. The Awami League’s own registration remains suspended.
At present, there are 53 registered political parties. In addition, the EC has recently sought public objections to the proposed registration of three more groups — the National Citizen Party (NCP), Bangladesh Aam Janagan Party, and Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (Marxist). Their final approval will follow the closure of the objection period.
The Commission has already held several stakeholder engagement sessions since late September, involving civil society members, academics, journalists, election observers and experts, along with meetings with law enforcement agencies and senior government officials to ensure a participatory and credible election.
According to the EC’s election roadmap outlined in August, major preparatory tasks are almost complete. These include amendments to election laws, constituency boundary adjustments, updating the voter list, finalizing polling station locations, registering new parties and observers, and revising operational guidelines for polling, media coverage and election monitoring.
The final voter lists, which currently include more than 12.76 crore voters, are scheduled to be completed by November 18. Earlier, the EC finalized the delimitation of 300 constituencies and released the updated list of 42,761 polling stations nationwide.
The Commission is also advancing plans to introduce a mobile application enabling expatriates and others to apply for postal ballots.
With most procedural tasks now nearing completion, the upcoming dialogues with political parties represent the EC’s last major step before announcing the official election schedule next month.
Source: UNB (United News of Bangladesh)
