President invites 6 more parties for dialogue

Bangabhaban on Tuesday invited six more political parties to hold dialogues with President Zillur Rahman on the appointment of new Chief Election Commissioner and other election commissioners.

The six invitees are Workers Party of Bangladesh, Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Samyabadi Dal, Jatiya Party (JP-Manju) and Islamic Front Bangladesh, said AKM Nesar Uddin Bhuiyan, president’s press secretary.

The dialogue, which has been initiated by the president to form the Election Commission with greater political consensus, will begin Wednesday at 11:00am with HM Ershad’s Jatiya Party followed by Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal noon.

The Workers Party and JP-Manju are set to sit at 11:00am and noon respectively on December 26, LDP at 11:00 am and CPB at noon on December 27, and Samyabadi Dal at 11:00am and Islamic Front at noon on December 29.

The press secretary said other parties having representatives in the Jatiya Sangsad and important parties registered with the Election Commission (EC) will be invited to the dialogue in phases.

The five-year tenure of the CEC ATM Shamsul Huda, and election commissioner M Sohul Hussain will expire on February 4, while the other commissioner Brig Gen (retd) Sakhawat Hossain will retire on February 14.