The Election Commission cannot move beyond the constitution and has no scope for deferring the polls schedule, said Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda.
His remark came as a reply to journalists’ queries at the Election Training Institute on Tuesday.
“We cannot go beyond it; there’s no scope to defer the election schedule and we won’t do that,” said the CEC as he cited the constitutional compulsion to hold the election by January 28.
But the EC can only defer the election date within the fixed timeframe in line with the constitution if all political parties agree on the issue, said Huda.
“We’ll defer it if all political parties come to us with the request,” he said.
The CEC is likely to announce the election schedule in his address to the nation on November 8 to hold the 11th parliamentary election by the end of December, bdnews24.com reported.
A new political alliance, Jatiya Oikya Front, has been pushing the EC to defer the election schedule.
Alliance leaders also demand the release of Khaleda Zia, reforms to the EC and holding the election under a neutral government.
