B'desh polls: BNP Chairperson Khaleda to submit EC formation proposal on Nov. 18

Bangladesh Nationalist Party(BNP) Chairperson Khaleda Zia will be placing a proposal on the formation of an impartial election commission (EC) for the next national polls on behalf of the 20-party alliance at a city hotel on November 18, according to a party press release.

The press note which was signed by BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi stated that the guidelines are to make sure that the rule of democracy and political stability are restored.

BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan said that the election would not be fair if the polls-time government and the Election Commission are not neutral.

"Our leader (Khaleda) will place specific proposals on behalf of the 20-party alliance on how to do this," the Dhaka Tribune quoted Nazrul Islam Khan as saying.

Khan added that BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, its standing committee members Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman, Nazrul Islam Khan, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury and five other central leaders have worked upon the proposals.

The Chief Election Commissioner of Bangladesh Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad's term will end in February 2017.

Leaders of the ruling Awami League said that the new election commissioners will be picked by a search committee as had been done in 2012.

The 2014 elections were boycotted by BNP as its demand for a 'non-partisan' polls-time government was not met.