B'desh general elections deferred for a week, to be held on Dec 30

The 11th General Elections in Bangladesh, which were scheduled to be held on December 23, has been deferred for a week to December 30, 2018.

Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda said that the decision was taken after several political parties had requested the top electoral body to defer the General Elections for a month as they were undecided about their participation in the polls, Daily Star Bangladesh reported.

On November 8, the Bangladesh Election Commission had announced the schedule of the 11th General Elections.

The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its alliances demanded the elections should be deferred by a month as they had yet to decide whether they should participate in the elections or not.

They added that if the polls were postponed, it would still be possible to hold the voting process within a 90-day timeframe, as proposed by the ruling Bangladesh Awami League. With this, candidates are expected to get more time to file their nomination papers. The Election Commission will announce the new dates later.

Almost 104.2 million registered voters will cast their votes at about 40,000 polling stations to elect 300 representatives to the Bangladesh Parliament.