Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda has said that the Election Commission (EC) won’t play role to take all the political parties in the 11th Parliamentary polls, as ‘it is not duty of the commission’.

He made the comment at second day of the two-day dialogue of the EC with the senior journalists held at the conference room of the EC Secretariat Building at Agargaon in the city on Thursday (August 17).

The EC sat with journalists of the electronic and online media in the second day. The talks began after 10:00 am with KM Nurul Huda in the chair.

The commission held talks with newspaper editors, journalist leaders and columnists on Wednesday (August 17). The print media journalists urged the EC to hold a free, fair and inclusive election. They suggested the commission for ensuring atmosphere of participatory polls so that all the political parties take part in the next general elections.

In the second day of talks, KM Nurul Huda said that it is not the duty of the EC to mediate between political parties. “We won’t go to anybody. We are an independent body. We will hear the statement of the political parties in dialogue. They will hear our statement. But the participation of anybody or not won’t be discussed in the dialogue. We also won’t any initiative in this regard,” he said.

About Army deployment during the polls, the CEC said that the EC will take decision on the issue later. If it requires, the Army will be deployed, otherwise not. It is only matter of the commission, he said.
As part of the roadmap for the next general election, the EC will also sit in talks with political parties, election observers, NGOs, women leaders and election experts.

The dialogue with political parties will begin in the last week of the current month. The EC will sit with six political parties, two parties each day, before the Eid-ul-Azha.

The EC started dialogue through sitting with civil society members on July 31. The civil society members also suggested for inclusive polls.