Dhaka, Sept 6 – Brushing aside the remarks of finance minister AMA Muhith on the probable date of holding the parliamentary polls, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda on Thursday said the minister should not have told it. “The finance minister has made a mistake. We did not have any discussion about the date of the election. The minister should not have said so,” he said.
The CEC said this in reply to a query at a press conference at a city hotel on the completion of the 9th Forum of the Election Management Bodies of South Asia (FEMBoSA) conference.
“He (finance minister) has told a date for holding the polls. He has made a mistake. He did not do the right thing,” Nurul Huda said.
Finance minister AMA Muhith on Wednesday said, “I have heard that the Election Commission plans to hold the polls on December 27 as per its plans.”
But yesterday the CEC rejected the statement of the finance minister.
Earlier, Election Commission secretary Helaluddin Ahmed said that the Commission is taking preparation to hold the parliamentary polls at the last week of December as there is Constitutional compulsion to hold the polls between Oct 30 and January 28.
The tenure of the current government would come to an end on January 28 next year as the first session of the 10th parliament started on 29 January 2014.
Accordingly, the Commission will have to announce the election schedule before 90 days. It means the scheduled date is likely to be at the end of October or beginning of November and the Commission will have to hold the 11th parliamentary polls by 28 January 2019. – Staff Reporter
