If sufficient polling officers are not available, instructions issued to recruit from private banks

ফাইল ছবি

News Desk:

The 13th National Parliamentary Election will be held on 12 February. Ahead of that, the Election Commission (EC) has instructed that the panel of polling officials must be prepared by 15 December. However, if a sufficient number of officials cannot be arranged, the EC has allowed recruitment of officials from private banks after proper scrutiny.

This instruction was given to district election officers in a letter recently signed by Mohammad Monir Hossain, Deputy Secretary of the EC.

According to the letter, for the 13th National Parliamentary Election, the EC has decided to exclude officers and employees of private banks while preparing the panel of polling officials. However, if an adequate number of officials are not available, officials and employees of private banks may be appointed after proper verification.

The letter further states that the panel of polling officials must be prepared by 15 December 2025.

Meanwhile, on 23 November, the BNP submitted a written demand to the EC, requesting that individuals from Islami Bank or similar institutions not be appointed as polling officials for the 13th parliamentary election. BNP leaders submitted the proposal during a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) A.M.M. Nasir Uddin.

It is learned that the party submitted a list of 36 proposals to the CEC. One of the points stated that, in order to maintain neutrality, officials or polling personnel—such as presiding officers, assistant presiding officers, and polling officers—should not be appointed from institutions widely recognized as party-affiliated. Examples cited include Islami Bank, Al-Arafah Bank, Islami Bank Hospital, Ibn Sina, etc.

Notably, Islami Bank has already canceled the appointment of nearly 5,000 officials and employees across the country, and there is public speculation that steps are being taken to quickly appoint party-affiliated individuals to those vacant posts.

Three days after BNP submitted their proposal, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami expressed concern over the BNP’s call to bar officials of Islami Bank and several other institutions from election duties.