Jamaat places 9 demands before Election Commission

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has placed a nine-point demand before the Election Commission (EC), including the cancellation of the contractual appointment of Additional Secretary Md Shamsul Alam and the continuation of MPO-enlisted teachers' eligibility to participate in local government elections.

The party's Secretary General Mia Golam Parwar disclosed the demands to journalists after a meeting with the Chief Election Commissioner at the Election Commission on Wednesday (July 29).

Among the demands are the cancellation of the contractual appointment of EC Secretariat Additional Secretary Md Shamsul Alam, review of the proposal to declare MPO-enlisted teachers ineligible for local government elections, the declaration of leaders of banned political parties as ineligible for local government elections and a ban on political administrators serving in various local government bodies from participating in elections.

After the meeting, Mia Golam Parwar alleged that the neutrality of the commission had been called into question by the appointment of a politically affiliated individual as additional secretary in a constitutional body like the EC. He claimed that Shamsul Alam was previously a member of the BNP's electoral constituency redetermination committee. However, the Election Commission has stated that they were unaware of his political affiliation and that the appointment was made by the government.