AL, JaPa yet to reach consensus on seat sharing, another meeting today

Awami League has not reached a consensus over seat sharing with Jatiya Party yet. The two parties will hold a meeting today on the issue.

JaPa’s secretary general Mujibul Haque informed Prothom Alo that they would sit with AL today at around 1:45pm.

He said AL and JaPa leaders held a meeting on Friday over various issues including holding a free and fair election and sharing of seats.

Tomorrow, Sunday, is the deadline to withdraw nomination papers by the candidates in the election slated for 7 January.

Sources said JaPa wanted AL to withdraw its nominees from several seats. The party also wants AL to withdraw independent candidates from these seats.

The two parties are holding rounds of meetings on the issue for the last several days.

Sources from both parties said AL and JaPa leaders held a meeting over seat sharing on Friday night.

AL general secretary Obaidul Quader, presidium member Jahangir Kabir Nanak, joint general secretary AFM Bahauddin (Nasim) and organising secretary Mirza Azam were present at the meeting. Co-chairman Anisul Islam Mahmud and secretary general Mujibul Haque (Chunnu) represented JaPa at the meeting.

No parties wanted to make any comment after the meeting.

Sources, however, said Awami League has reached a consensus to share 26 seats with Jatiya Party in the upcoming parliamentary election.

Asked if JaPa is satisfied with 26 seats, Mujibul Haque told Prothom Alo that he would not comment anything yet. There would be more discussions on the matter.

One source said JaPa wanted at least 40 seats from AL at the meeting but the ruling party leaders did not budge.