BNP to sit with party men, alliance today to decide on contesting polls

BNP today will hold several meetings with its standing committee members and the top leaders of the 20-party alliance and the Jatiya Oikyafront to decide over the participation of the 11th parliamentary election.

All the meetings will be held at the party Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office in Dhaka, sources at BNP told.

The next course of the action of the party will also be decided after the meetings, the sources said.

BNP will hold its first meeting with standing committee members around 5:00pm while another meeting with the 20-party alliance leaders around 6:00pm.

Later, at 8:00pm another meeting will be held with the Jatiya Oikyafront, , a newly floated political alliance, leaders.

BNP's participation in the next general election, which will be held on December 23, will be the main issue in the meetings.

Besides, the Jatiya Oikyafront will also take a decision over its next course of action to press home their seven-point demand, including formation of a neutral election-time government and deployment of army with magistracy power during the election.

When will the 11th JS polls be held?

The 11th parliamentary election will be held on December 23, Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda announced on Thursday.

In a televised address to the nation yesterday, CEC Huda unveiled the election schedule and urged all political parties to join the election.

The announcement of the election schedule came despite the request of Jatiya Oikyafront, an alliance of the Gono Forum, BNP and several other opposition parties, not to announce the schedule before resolving the crisis over the election.

According to the schedule, the last date for filing nomination papers for candidacy is November 19. The returning officers will scrutinise the nomination papers on November 22 while the last date for withdrawing candidacy is November 29.

Source: thedailystar