Dhaka – The Election Commission is expected to announce the schedule for the upcoming parliamentary election on Thursday.
Alongside the 13th parliamentary election, the commission will also announce the schedule for the country’s third constitutional referendum, with both polls to be held on the same day.
Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin will announce the schedule in a televised address to the nation on Thursday, according to Election Commission Secretary Akhtar Ahmed.
Earlier, the interim administration headed by Muhammad Yunus said that the parliamentary election and the referendum would be held simultaneously in the first half of February.
The referendum will seek public approval for the constitutional reform agenda proposed by the caretaker administration. These reforms followed lengthy discussions among major political parties after the last year’s mass uprising, which ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina’s Awami League party was neither invited to participate in formulating the reform proposals, nor will it be eligible to contest the next general election. The activities of Hasina’s party were banned by the caretaker government in May.
