Holding the 13th national election and the referendum on the implementation of the July Charter on the same day would be a huge challenge, Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin said on Saturday.
“We have to hold the election and the referendum on the same day, using the same resources. This has never happened before. No previous commission has faced such a challenge,” he said while addressing a programme organised by the Asian Network for Free Elections at a city hotel.
“We will have to undertake many additional tasks for this,” he added.
“Despite this, we are committed to holding the election and the referendum on the same day,” he emphasised.
The CEC made the remarks just a day after receiving a letter from the government requesting the independent body to prepare for conducting both the general elections and the referendum simultaneously.
EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed told reporters on Saturday that they had received the letter on Thursday.
Amid political disagreements over the legal basis of the July Charter and the referendum, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus announced on 13 November that the national election and the referendum would be held on the same day.
A week later, the Cabinet Division sent the official letter to the EC.
Reiterating the commitment to delivering a free, fair and credible election, Nasir said, “Our only agenda is to give the nation a free, fair and credible election – nothing more, nothing less.”
The CEC also described the task of installing CCTV cameras at more than 42,000 polling centres as a “monstrous burden”.
Speaking about enabling expatriates to vote through postal ballots, he said, “Managing people’s expectations is a huge challenge. People have many, many expectations – managing them is the biggest challenge.”
The CEC added that the commission’s preparations for the election are complete and that they are ready to face any challenges.
“This time, preventing AI-driven and social media-based misinformation will be difficult. However, if Bangladesh’s political culture were more cooperative and consensus-based, the commission’s work would be much easier.”
The Asian Network for Free Elections organised the day-long workshop to facilitate an exchange of experiences between the Bangladesh Election Commission and election experts from various countries, including Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
