Election to vacant seats within 90 days: EC

Election Commissioner Md Alamgir said on Sunday that elections to seats left vacant, after 5 BNP MPs resigned, will be held within 90 days as per the constitution.

He came up with the remark while speaking with journalists at his office in Election Commission Bhaban in Dhaka, after news of resignation of five BNP MPs emerged.

“We are yet to get a gazette of the vacant seats. If they (BNP MPs) truly resigned, the election to vacant seats will be held within 90 days,” he said, adding that the gazette will be circulated after the Speaker or Deputy Speaker receives the resignation letters.

EC Commissioner Alamgir said there is a constitutional obligation to hold elections for the vacant seats within 90 days after seats get vacated.

Asked about the resignation of the BNP MPs, he said they saw the matter as normal and an MP can resign.

“It is narrated in the constitution, how the resignation can go, here the EC has nothing to gain or lose,” he said.

Earlier today, five out of seven BNP members of the parliament (MPs) submitted their resignation to Speaker of the Parliament Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, as part of their anti-government movement with a 10-point demand that includes dissolution of parliament. The BNP MPs submitted their resignation letters at 12:20 pm.

The MPs who resigned are: Md. Zahidur Rahman, Thakurgaon-3; Md. Mosharof Hosen, Bogura-4; Gulam Mohammad Siraj, Bogura-6; Md. Aminul Islam, Chapainawabganj-2 and Rumeen Farhana, from women’s reserved seats.

Md. Harunur Rashid of Chapainawabganj-3, who is now in Australia and ailing MP of Brahmanbaria-2 Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan could not submit resignation to the Speaker today.

Earlier, Rumeen Farhana announced the decision from the party’s Golapbagh rally on Saturday. The MPs sent their resignation through an email on Saturday.

BNP on Saturday unveiled a 10-point charter of demands from Golapbagh rally aimed at unseating the government through a simultaneous movement.