Staff Correspondent

The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, said on Sunday that he did not believe the political parties had any blanket objection to holding of local government polls.

‘I think the political parties are opposing only the upazila parishad elections…But I believe there is no objection, as such, to holding of the overdue elections to the city corporations and municipalities’, the CEC said as he was replying to a barrage of questions on the government’s reported move to hold local government elections before the national polls and the political parties’ opposition to any such plan.

About the upazila polls, the CEC said that the EC was yet to receive any formal request from the government for holding upazila polls. ‘After receiving the government’s letter for conducting upazila polls, we will decide whether the polls will be held before or simultaneously with the national elections’, he said.

About a political party’s demand for his registration, Huda said anyone could demand anything. ‘Many such statements will be issued, but we are not going to be confused of derailed. We are working towards our goal in a resolute manner. Many will say many things. We are doing our work’, he said when asked if the demand for his resignation would hamper their work.

Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, a BNP joint-secretary general, on Saturday questioned the neutrality of the CEC and said he should step down voluntarily.

The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, said in a statement signed by the party’s acting office secretary Rizvi Ahmed, that the EC and the commission on several occasions had shown ‘bias’ towards ‘some people and parties’. Delwar in this context referred to the comments made by the CEC on a private TV channel on Friday that the ‘expulsion of Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan from the BNP was illegal’ and that ‘the BNP should change its constitution’.

The CEC, however, declined to comment when asked if his views on the BNP’s constitution would influence the hearing in the case relating to which faction was the mainstream of the BNP. ‘I won’t make any comment on the matter’, the CEC said when asked if his comments would affect the hearing process.

The dialogue between the EC and the BNP could not be held as yet as the High Court was hearing a writ petition filed by the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, challenging the EC invitation to Hafizuddin Ahmed of the party’s splinter group to attend the dialogue.

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