Political parties to decide on voting system: Shafiqul Alam

The decision on whether the next national election will be held under the Proportional Representation (PR) system or the existing voting method will be made by political parties, said Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to the Chief Adviser. He added that it would be preferable for the government to limit its comments on the matter.

The remarks came on Sunday during an event at The Daily Star's conference room in Karwan Bazar, Dhaka, where research organization Innovation presented the findings of its latest election survey.

The survey, which included 10,413 respondents, showed that 56% of people in the country are unaware of the PR system. Of those who expressed a view, 21.8% supported PR, while 22.2% opposed it.

Meanwhile, 69.9% of respondents believed that an interim government would be capable of conducting a neutral election. However, members of religious minority communities expressed comparatively less confidence in the interim government’s ability to organize the polls.