The Election Commission (EC) is working on the plan for the 12th National Assembly elections to begin in January 2024, as the schedule may be announced in November this year and the main preparations will begin in September.

By September, the EC will take a final decision on how many constituencies will use ballot papers and how many constituencies will use EVMs. Apart from this, the purchase of other election materials including paper collection will also start accordingly.

The plan will contain all the details from the table of law and order forces in the election field, various purchases, collection of paper and ink to the publication of election results. However, EC has quietly put forward many tasks for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The new EC has already completed the first phase of the election dialogue with the 12th parliamentary election in front of it; sent the draft proposal to amend the Representation of the People Order (RPO) to the Ministry; the draft will be released on January 15 after updating the voter list. New party registration is underway.

EC officials said, preparations for the 12th parliamentary elections are underway. The Election Commissioners are giving various instructions regarding the parliamentary elections. Calculations are being made on how the polls might cost. The areas where conflicts occurred in the 11th parliamentary elections are being identified.

They said, EC will have two types of plans for the 12th National Assembly elections. First, polling in January 2024 with a schedule for mid-November next year. Second, polling is scheduled for early November next year and is scheduled for late December.

Meanwhile, the political parties are not sitting ahead of the parliamentary elections. They have also started election preparations. Various calculations are going on with the nominations for the this. Parties are reviewing their respective candidates.

The election commissioner Md. Anisur Rahman said, “We have already said that the national parliament elections will be held at the end of this year or in the first week of January next year.”

“So with working hours we no longer have to walk, we have to run. We have informal discussions every day. Apart from this, voting training is going on and will continue,” he said.

“We will hold parliamentary elections by the end of December or the first week of January. We hope that the law amendment issue will also come from the Law Ministry in a few days. The law minister said that the work is nearing completion, they will send it in a few days. In this case, we will be able to complete the work of amending the law by February,” he added.

Regarding the redelineation of boundaries, he said, “I hope to complete the work of demarcation by June. I will try to do it within the month of May. I have written to the Bureau of Statistics for the final report of the census. If they do it after June, it will not be taken into account.”

“In this case, the boundaries will be redefined taking into account the current situation. We did not get many seat offers. I have started working on them. He said about the publication of the voter list, the final voter list will be published on March 2. There is a legal obligation to do so,” Anisur said.

Talking about polling stations, the election commissioner said, “If the boundaries are redrawn, the polling stations will be finalized by August. But it may take till November to finalize.”

Regarding the registration of the new party, he said, “Preliminary work of the registration of the new party has been completed. They gave many papers. They have been selected. He expressed hope that the new party registration process will be completed by June.”

Avout EVMs, Anisur Rahman said, “New project of EVM is in the Planning Commission. And manpower has been approved by the government. Now the work cannot be done with 13 manpower. I have asked the finance department to reconsider the matter. Now anyway the EVM project should be passed quickly.”

“If the project is not passed by January 15 and approval is given after that, it will be very difficult for us,” he added.

The 11th National Parliament election was held on December 30, 2018. And the first parliament session will be held on January 30, 2019. According to the constitution, the term of parliament is five years from the first session. As such, the term of the current parliament is up to January 30, 2024.

In the case of holding elections, the constitution has mentioned 90 days before the end of the term of parliament. Accordingly, there is a constitutional obligation to hold the 12th National Parliament election within 90 days prior to January 30, 2024.

@The report was published on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on January 2, 2023 and rewritten in English by Tanvir Raihan.