Dialogue: EC’s invitation letter lies unattended inside locked BNP office

Inviting the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for a pre-election dialogue, the election commission (EC) left a letter on a chair inside the locked collapsible gate of the party's head office at Naya Paltan on Thursday.

After around 24 hours, the white envelope – addressed to secretary general, BNP – was seen lying unattended inside the gate, along with some other letters.

The BNP headquarters has been under lock and key since their clash with the police on 28 October.

An EC staff member went to the office on Thursday evening and waited there for several hours. Having failed to enter the office, he dropped the commission’s invitation letter on a chair inside the collapsible gate.

The commission will hold dialogues with the registered political parties from Saturday.

However, most of the senior leaders of BNP have been arrested after their grand rally on 28 October.

Earlier, the party refrained from joining the EC dialogue and, instead, demanded reinstatement of the election-time caretaker government.

As the authorities did not pay heed to their demands, the party, along with other like-minded political entities, have been holding movement, demanding resignation of prime minister Sheikh Hasina and introduction of a poll-time government system.