EC’s dialogues with stakeholders to begin July 31

The Election Commission on Sunday finalised its action plan for the next general elections slating the schedule for dialogues with political parties and other stakeholders from July 31.
‘The commission finalised the seven-point action plan in a meeting at its headquarters,’ its secretary
M Abdullah told reporters emerging from the meeting, adding that the action plan as a booklet on July 16.
He said that the commission would begin its dialogue with talks with the civil society representatives on July 31.
The commission would hold talks with media representatives in August with the 40 registered political parties in August and September, he added.
He said that the commission would also hold talks with election monitoring groups and election management experts in October.
The commission would publish a draft of the suggestions to be made by the participants in the dialogues and finalise the suggestions in December, the commission secretary said.
He said that that the commission would hold the talks with the stakeholders to ensure the holding of elections free from money and muscle and create a level playing field for all parties.
The commission would discuss with the parties how to reform the electoral process as it would work to modernise and ease the electoral system, he said.
He said that the commission would complete the delimitations of the 300 parliamentary constituencies by December.
The commission would update the electoral roll between July 25, 2017 and June 2018 and select the polling stations in June-August 2018, he said, adding that the list of the polling stations would be published in a gazette notification before 35 days of the polling day.
The commission prepared the action plan for holding the 11th parliamentary elections between October 30, 2018 and January 28, 2019.
Abdullah said that the commission also formed four committees to implement the action plan while it also decided to engage two consultants to assist the committees regarding the delimitation of the constituencies and reforms of electoral law and rules. 
Replying to a question, he, whoever, said that the commission did not include the matter of electronic voting machine in the action plan.
The election to the 10th parliament, held on January 5, 2014, drew widespread criticism as all opposition political parties boycotted the polls and candidates in 153 of the 300 territorial constituencies were elected uncontested. 

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net