BNP submits 2nd letter to EC
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Monday alleged that the Election Commission (EC) is reluctant to contact the party to join its proposed reform dialogue following objections raised by its expelled leaders, reports UNB.
"But Khandaker Delwar Hossain-led BNP is the main stream BNP… We again formally inform the Election Commission about it," party acting office secretary Ruhul Kabir Rijvi Ahmed told reporters after submitting a letter to the Commission.
The letter requested the Commission to contact the BNP's "legal" secretary general for discussion on all matters.
A five-member delegation, led by Rijvi, handed over the letter to EC secretary M Humayun Kabir.
Rijvi said BNP submitted another letter to the EC on September 5, informing it about the expulsion of former party secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and joint secretary general Ashraf Hossain, and appointment of Khandaker Delwar Hossain as its new secretary general.
"But taking the objections raised by the expelled leaders, the Election Commission is maintaining a silence in contacting the BNP. The party observes that Election Commission's apprehension following the submission of its earlier letter is unexpected," today's (Monday's) letter of the BNP read.
It said, "… Unnecessary excuses would be considered as intentional."
Talking to newsmen about today's letter, Election Commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain dismissed the BNP's allegations as 'false' and 'wrong'.
"We're contacting the concerned political party 15 days before the scheduled date for dialogue with it. So, I think this kind of letter and allegation is not right. It cannot be expected from a big party like BNP," he said.
"According to the dialogue schedule, the EC is to sit with BNP on November 22 and today is just September 24," he added.
"We (EC) would see what they have written, what is the context and whether the context is right at all or not. Then we would come up with an answer," Sakhawat said.
Meanwhile, the EC Monday held a meeting with cell phone companies seeking their cooperation in carrying out a campaign to make the voters aware about the necessity of their names in the voter list.
Chaired by Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda, the meeting was also attended by Election commissioners M Sohul Hussain and Sakhawat Hussain.
The cell phone operators assured the Commission of their all-out support to the countrywide voter listing work, Sakhawat told the reporters after the hour-long meeting.
To encourage the voters to get registered in the electoral roll, the EC asked the cell phone companies to make the voter list as the theme of their advertisements.
They were also asked to send SMS to their subscribers of the areas where voter listing would be going on.
M Tariqul Hassan of CityCell, Khalid Hassan of GrameenPhone, Sakiul Rahman of Banglalink, Razif Yahyo, M Halim and M Mohsin Ali of Aktel,
M Zainul Abedin of Teletalk and Asraf Chowdhury and Muneer Farooqui of WARID, among others, attended the meeting.
"But Khandaker Delwar Hossain-led BNP is the main stream BNP… We again formally inform the Election Commission about it," party acting office secretary Ruhul Kabir Rijvi Ahmed told reporters after submitting a letter to the Commission.
The letter requested the Commission to contact the BNP's "legal" secretary general for discussion on all matters.
A five-member delegation, led by Rijvi, handed over the letter to EC secretary M Humayun Kabir.
Rijvi said BNP submitted another letter to the EC on September 5, informing it about the expulsion of former party secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and joint secretary general Ashraf Hossain, and appointment of Khandaker Delwar Hossain as its new secretary general.
"But taking the objections raised by the expelled leaders, the Election Commission is maintaining a silence in contacting the BNP. The party observes that Election Commission's apprehension following the submission of its earlier letter is unexpected," today's (Monday's) letter of the BNP read.
It said, "… Unnecessary excuses would be considered as intentional."
Talking to newsmen about today's letter, Election Commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain dismissed the BNP's allegations as 'false' and 'wrong'.
"We're contacting the concerned political party 15 days before the scheduled date for dialogue with it. So, I think this kind of letter and allegation is not right. It cannot be expected from a big party like BNP," he said.
"According to the dialogue schedule, the EC is to sit with BNP on November 22 and today is just September 24," he added.
"We (EC) would see what they have written, what is the context and whether the context is right at all or not. Then we would come up with an answer," Sakhawat said.
Meanwhile, the EC Monday held a meeting with cell phone companies seeking their cooperation in carrying out a campaign to make the voters aware about the necessity of their names in the voter list.
Chaired by Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda, the meeting was also attended by Election commissioners M Sohul Hussain and Sakhawat Hussain.
The cell phone operators assured the Commission of their all-out support to the countrywide voter listing work, Sakhawat told the reporters after the hour-long meeting.
To encourage the voters to get registered in the electoral roll, the EC asked the cell phone companies to make the voter list as the theme of their advertisements.
They were also asked to send SMS to their subscribers of the areas where voter listing would be going on.
M Tariqul Hassan of CityCell, Khalid Hassan of GrameenPhone, Sakiul Rahman of Banglalink, Razif Yahyo, M Halim and M Mohsin Ali of Aktel,
M Zainul Abedin of Teletalk and Asraf Chowdhury and Muneer Farooqui of WARID, among others, attended the meeting.