BNP, other parties to be urged to sit for talks on polls: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal on Friday said that all political parties, including BNP, will be urged to sit for discussions in one to two months.

He disclosed this while addressing the inaugural session of the programme on updating voter list at the auditorium of Savar Upazila Parishad in Savar under the arrangement of Dhaka Senior District Election Office and Savar Upazila Administration.

Awal also said that after some necessary assessment regarding the system of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), the Election Commission (EC) will work to increase the capacity of this system if needed.

With Election Commission Secretary Humayun Kabir Khandaker in the chair, the programme was attended, among others, by Dhaka Deputy Commissioner (DC) Md Shahidul Islam, Dhaka District Superintendent of Police Maruf Hossain Sardar, Dhaka District's Senior Election Officer Md Monir Hossain, Savar Upazila Chairman Manjurul Alam Rajib, Savar Municipal Mayor Alhaj Abdul Gani and Savar Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Mazharul Islam.

Mentioning that the main goal of the Election Commission is to conduct free and fair election, Election Commissioner Md Anisur Rahman today said they are not concerned about the participants in the upcoming general elections.

"Elections will not be cancelled for anyone....We want all parties' participation in the elections," he said.

"The next general national election will be free, fair and impartial. We will continue efforts to ensure participation of those political parties. We have 39 registered political parties and we will talk each party," he added.

The election commissioner camp up with the remarks after the inaugural ceremony of updating voter lists and distribution of smart cards at district election office this afternoon.

Responding to a question, about the upcoming national elections and electronic voting machine (EVM), "We are yet ready or able to hold elections in 300 seats with electronic voting machines (EVMs)." "We have seen that there are different pros and cons about EVMs. These are the things we are trying to solve," he said.