Election schedule likely in second week of December: CEC
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin has said that the election schedule is likely to be announced in the second week of December.
Almost all preparations have been completed and expressed hope that the Election Commission will be able to deliver a fair election and referendum to the nation, he added.
A 'mock voting' was held today, Saturday, from 8am to 12 noon at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Government Girls’ High School in Agargaon, Dhaka.
The Election Commission (EC) organised this mock voting as part of preparations for the upcoming 13th national parliamentary elections. The CEC spoke with journalists about the event.
Regarding the organisation of the 'mock voting' (practice voting), the CEC said, “This is not just a practice for casting votes. It has been organised to verify how the overall environment of the polling centre, the arrangement of voter queues, the positions of polling and presiding officers, and the role of journalists will function in reality.”
He added that since a referendum will also be held alongside the national elections, this mock voting was conducted to realistically assess how much time the process will take.
The CEC further stated, “We are conducting a real-time assessment of the situation. Normally, voting starts at 8am and ends at 4pm now, in addition to that, we have to conduct a referendum alongside the election. This requires careful time management. Based on today’s assessment, we will determine whether the 42,700 polling centres we have designated are sufficient.”
AMM Nasir Uddin said, “We will assess whether the current number of polling centres is sufficient, whether additional centres are needed, or if simply adding more rooms will suffice. Adding a centre or a room means increasing manpower and ballot boxes, as well as arranging many other logistics. We will evaluate these requirements based on practical understanding.”
The CEC emphasised that they want to proceed based on reality, not estimates. He said, “We will observe practically and conduct a real-time assessment today, and then we will do the planning. That way, we can calculate exactly how many centres need to be added and make the adjustments accordingly.”
Regarding confusion among voters about the referendum, AMM Nasir Uddin said that campaigning on the referendum has not yet begun. The election commission and the government will soon launch a widespread joint awareness campaign.
He noted that the commission started working on the referendum only after it received legal approval. At the same time, he urged the media to play a responsible role in disseminating information.