Talks heat up over polls schedule JOF tells EC to wait until dialogue outcome [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Talks heat up over polls schedule JOF tells EC to wait until dialogue outcome

Local November 06, 2018

Jatiya Oikya Front leaders during a heated exchange on Monday urged Election Commission not to announce schedule for the next general election until the outcome of ongoing dialogue between the ruling alliance and JOF was visible.
They asked the commission to follow the outcome of the upcoming dialogue between prime minister Sheikh Hasina and JOF leaders on November 7 while the EC was preparing to declare the schedule on November 8.
During the about two-hour meeting, the JOF leaders and chief election commissioner KM Nurul Huda had several heated exchanges as they discussed using electronic voting machine in the upcoming polls, meeting insiders said.
They said the CEC and Nagarik Oikya convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna got into an altercation after Manna said there was no guarantee that EVM would not be manipulated.
Before Manna completed his sentence, the CEC asked Manna not to brag while Manna, retorting, told the CEC to mind his language, they said.
The meeting sources said that a JOF leader in his remark said they wanted to trust the EC though people had no trust in it.
Responding to the remark, the CEC said people rather had no trust in political parties.
Later, Jatiya Oikya Front leader Sultan Mohammad Mansur calmed the situation.
Both Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal faction president ASM Abdur Rob and EC secretary Healuddin Ahmed, however, at separate news briefing told reporters that the discussion was held in a happy environment.
ASM Rob said that the EC assured them of taking necessary initiatives to ensure security of polling agents, polling stations and election observers.
He said that EC did not give them any direct decision on deployment of army with magistracy while they (EC) mentioned that army was deployed in previous elections and they were yet to make any decision in this regard.
Besides, the EC secretary said that EC would decide army deployment after polls schedule was announced.
Rob said that they suggested that EVM should not be used as the most stakeholders including political parties and voters were against it.
If the EC used EVM and declared polls schedule in a hurry, he warned, they would be criticised as there was enough time before the parliament would expire on January 28, 2019.
He also said that the JOF delegation reminded the CEC and other commissioners that they would have to live in this country even after January 2019.
The meeting sources said that the JOF leaders told the CEC that nobody would get off after holding an election like that of January 5, 2014.
The EC secretary said that the commission was scheduled to hold a meeting at 10:00am on November 8 and the demand for delaying the polls schedule would be discussed at the meeting.
He, however, said that the commission had enough preparation for declaring polls schedule on November 8 and holding the polls in December.
The meeting sources said the JOF leaders told the commission that ensuring a level playing field in this situation would not be possible by the commission as it was making most its decision at government instruction.
They said the JOF leaders also alleged that the commission had no control over any government institution during the city corporation elections.
In the meeting, Sultan Mohammad Mansur urged the EC not to use EVM and deploy army with magistracy power.
Responding to Mansur’s opinion, election commissioner Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury said, ‘Why do you people talk against EVM when you have not looked into it?’
Shahadat also said that the EC thought that army deployment was important but they were confused about what magistracy power actually meant.
Later, Mansur explained that they demanded army deployment with power of arrest like regular law enforcement agencies.
Among others, Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Zafrullah Chowdhury, Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders Goyeshwar Chandra Roy and Barkatullah Bulu and Nagarik Oikya leader Naim Jahangir were in the JOF delegation.
Meanwhile, Supreme Court Bar Association on the day sent a letter to the CEC requesting him not to announce the schedule for next general election before completion of the ongoing political dialogue.
SCBA also demanded that EVM should not be used in the election.
A three-member SCBA delegation, led its senior vice-president Md Golam Mostafa, submit the letter to CEC.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Jatiya Oikya Prakriya and Jukta Front members Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal faction, led by ASM Abdur Rob, and Nagarik Oikya launched Jatiya Oikya Front on October 13 pressing for their seven-point charter of demands for a free, fair and credible election.