The election commission is working with two plans for the upcoming 12^th national election. According to the plans, the national parliamentary election will be held in the last week of December or first week of January. The election schedule will be announced in November.

If the election is held in December, then EC will announce the schedule in the middle of November and if it’s held in January, then EC will announce the schedule after November 20.

The election commissioner Anisur Rahman said the election will be held in last week of December or first week of January and election schedule will be announced in November. He said this while speaking as the chief guest in smart NID distribution programme in Shariatpur on Saturday.

According to EC officials, the final list for national polls will be published on March 2. The commission will prepare the list of 300 areas according to the constituencies as soon as the EC announce the election schedule. In this upcoming election, voting through ballot papers will be will be done in maximum constituencies. EC planned to use Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in maximum 150 constituencies and purchase 2 lac EVMs; however, they suspended the plan. Now, in how many constituencies the EVMs will be used, will be decided by EC soon. They’re checking the quality of EVMs set up across the country.

According to the constitution, the duration of the parliament is five years from its first session and the current parliament will last up to January 30, 2024. The laws about election state that the election is to be held prior to 90 days of January 30.

Meanwhile, the EC will want allotment from government to purchase CC camera. The costing of Tk 21 crore for purchasing CC camera was included in the budget of purchasing EVMs. However, as the purchasing plan of EVMs is suspended, the EC is thinking of demanding allotment for buying CC camera with other expenditures of the election. About the use of CC camera, election commissioner Rasheda Sultana said, “We’ve 100 percent willingness to utilize it. But, finance is a big matter here. It matter of election budget. However, we’ve not finalized the decision yet.”

According to EC officials, as the purchasing of EVMs has been postponed, ballot-paper based voting could be held in 250 constituencies and they’re taking preparation in this regard. However, the EC secretariat is waiting to get the decision from higher authority in this regard.

The EC has checked out the quality of ballot boxes available across the country. They found 3, 02,000 ballot boxes in fine condition by which voting can be done in 300 constituencies.

According to the EC officials, as one EVM is needed for each room for casting-vote, so voting through EVMs is possible only in 50 to 70 constituencies.

@The report was published in Bengali on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on February 5 and rewritten in English by Lutful Hoque