Why hurry in announcing poll dates, asks Bangladeshi daily

The Bangladesh poll schedule "cannot be said to have been properly thought through", said a leading daily which observed that the announcement was made in "undue haste".

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin has "surprised the nation Monday by announcing the schedule for the 10th Jatiya Sangsad election in undue haste", said an editorial in the Daily Star Wednesday.

The Bangladesh Election Commission Monday announced that the country will undergo parliamentary elections next year Jan 5.

The daily noted this action "flies in the face of his previous day's observation that he was waiting for a political reconciliation among the major political stakeholders".

"What then happened in the next 24 hours that compelled him to say in his address to the nation that he has no more time in hand to wait? It boggles the mind."

The editorial observed that had the chief election commissioner used discretion, "he would have allowed a reasonable length of time to see that the ruling AL (Awami League) and the main opposition BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) come to an understanding before declaring the election schedule".

The daily went on to say that "considerations of possible political imperatives should have weighed in more with him than they have".

"For it is not the polls dates alone, the entire schedule from the date of submitting the nomination papers, their scrutiny and withdrawal cannot be said to have been properly thought through with enough breathing space in between," it said.

"...it appears the statutory body has been driven more by someone else's diktat than discharging its constitutional obligations."

The nomination to contest elections can be filed till Dec 2, 2013, according to the poll schedule.