The new Election Commission has sat down with at least 15 eminent citizens for a second round of talks to explore ways to hold a fair and free national election.
Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal greeted the guests in the conference room of the EC office in Dhaka on Tuesday, reports bdnews24.com.
But the meeting received a lukewarm response as half of the 40 invitees failed to turn up.
The four election commissioners, Md Alamgir, Anisur Rahman, Rashida Sultana Emily Ahsan Habib Khan, also took part in the dialogue.
From the outset, the new CEC has been calling for political compromise to ensure a participatory election.
Two weeks after taking office, the new EC conferred with academics on Mar 13 in the first round of talks ahead of the 12th parliamentary election. They called on the commission to work towards gaining the trust of all stakeholders and come to an acceptable decision on the use of electronic voting machines.
“The job of the commission is to hold parliamentary and local elections. Many things have been said at different times but participatory elections have not been ensured due to various reasons. There has been criticism on that front. That is why we want the election to be more inclusive," CEC Awal had said.
But Awal warned that it will be difficult to hold free and fair elections without the cooperation of all political parties.