EC to seek Speaker's meeting before announcing presidential poll schedule

The Election Commission (EC) is set to arrange a meeting with the acting Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad very soon to discuss the schedule for the presidential election. The commission said the schedule and subsequent steps would be finalised after this meeting.

Senior Secretary of the Election Commission Akhter Ahmed informed journalists of this after an unscheduled meeting held at the office of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) at the Election Building in Agargaon on Sunday (July 26). "As part of the presidential election process, a formal meeting between the Election Commission and the Speaker is necessary. We will very soon send a request to the acting Speaker for a meeting," he said. "A decision on the announcement of the presidential election schedule and subsequent actions will be made after the meeting."

Sources within the EC said the meeting discussed laws, constitutional provisions and administrative preparations related to the presidential election in detail. The decision to hold the meeting with the Speaker was made after reviewing these matters.

According to the rules, the CEC pays a courtesy call on the Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad before announcing the presidential election schedule. Following that tradition, CEC A M M Nasir Uddin is set to meet with the acting Speaker, Kaiser Kamal.

As per the constitution, the President is elected by the members of the Jatiya Sangsad. For this, the Parliament Secretariat will send the list of MPs to the Election Commission. Based on that list, the EC will prepare the voter list for the presidential election, after which the commission will announce the election schedule.

Election Commission officials said the formal procedures and timeline for the election will be discussed during the meeting with the Speaker, following which the next phase of preparations for the presidential election will begin.