President Md Shahabuddin on Wednesday said he will provide optimum support and cooperation to the Election Commission (EC) to make the upcoming 13th national elections and referendum free, fair and meaningful.
EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said this while briefing reporters at Nirbachan Bhaban in city's Agargaon in the afternoon.
Earlier, in the morning, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin met President Shahabuddin at Bangabhaban to discuss the overall preparations of the Commission and the announcement of the schedule for the 13th parliamentary elections and referendum.
Election Commissioners - Abdur Rahmanel Masud, Begum Tahmida Ahmad, Md Anwarul Islam Sarker and Brigadier General (Retd) Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah and EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed accompanied the CEC.
Briefing reporters, Akhtar Ahmed said the CEC called on the President today to discuss the pre-election preparations and other issues.
"The President has told us that the Election Commission is moving forward and he will provide whatever support he can give for a good, fair and meaningful election. This was basically the topic of today's discussion," he said.
The EC secretariat said the CEC informed the President about the update of the voter list and the latest status of political party registration.
During the meeting, he said, the President wanted to know the details of how the EC will organise the elections and the referendum on the same day, how the ballot papers are being prepared, what will be colour of ballot papers, how those will be provided to voters, how much time a voter would take to vote and what is the method of vote counting.
After the Election Commission informed the President in detail about all the issues, the President expressed satisfaction over the overall preparations of the Commission, Akhtar Ahmed said.
He said the President was very interested in postal voting and out of his curiosity he asked some questions about it and wanted to know its procedural structure and technical issues.
The President was very happy to hear that experts would work on all these issues, while the EC informed the President of all these issues in detail, he said.
The EC secretary said the CEC's speech will be recorded at 4 pm today. To this end, a letter was sent to Bangladesh Television (BTV) and Bangladesh Betar earlier, he added.
UNB Adds;
Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin on Wednesday briefed President Mohammed Shahabuddin on the Commission’s overall preparations to hold the upcoming parliamentary elections and the referendum .
The CEC along with other Election Commissioners met the President at Bangabhaban at noon ahead of the announcement of the schedule for the 13th national election, said a press release signed by Md Nesar Uddin Jewel, deputy secretary at the office of the president.
The President expressed satisfaction over the Election Commission’s overall preparations, it said.
Senior Secretary of the Election Commission Secretariat Md. Akhtar Ahmed; Secretary of the Public Division of the President’s Office Khan Md. Nurul Amin; and the Military Secretary to the President Major General Mohammad Adil Chowdhury were present on the occasion.
The election schedule is expected to be announced on Wednesday or Thursday.
The EC also sent a letter to BTV and Bangladesh Betar to record the Chief Election Commissioner’s (CEC) address on the same day.
