The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has skipped the ongoing dialogue with President Md Abdul Hamid over the formation of the Election Commission (EC).
The party, which remains out of power for more than a decade now, was invited to join the parley at 4:00 pm on Wednesday.
The president has started sitting with the registered political parties on the issue over the past few days.
An invitation letter from the President's office was sent to BNP office on January 05. BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi received it.
Terming the talk 'meaningless', BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in a statement on December 29 said, "BNP believes that it is not possible to constitute an acceptable election commission without forming a non-partisan and neutral government first."
"The President himself admits that he doesn't have [full] power to change. That's why, the dialogue between him (President) and the political parties won't bring any positive result."
"Therefore, BNP won't take part in any meaningless dialogue like this," according to the statement.
Mr Alamgir said it was just a waste of time discussing the formation of an EC without a constitutional guarantee to the formation of election-time neutral government and administration.
During the formation of two previous ECs, registered political parties joined discussions with the President and put forward their suggestions, he observed.
"BNP also placed its specific recommendations to the President for the formation of EC that time," cited Mr Alamgir.
talhabinhabib@yahoo.com