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Dhaka: The Election Commission in emergency-ruled Bangladesh has set October 15 as the deadline for mandatory registration of political parties for contending polls five days after the interim government enforced a key election law incorporating the provision.
"The process of registration of the political parties with the Election Commission will begin with publication of an advertisement on August 27 inviting the parties to apply for registration," by October 15, Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda told a group of newsmen late on Monday.
The amended Representation of People Order (RPO) lately made registration mandatory for the parties to contest the parliamentary polls while it also stipulated a number of conditions for registration barring political parties from running front organisations and overseas units.
The EC officials said they planned to wrap up the registration by October 30 and a few days after that, announce the schedule for the general election in December this year.
Major political parties including former prime minister Shaikh Hasina's Awami League and her archrival Khalida Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), however, said the time limit for registration was too short to complete all related tasks and meet the criteria for contesting the general elections.
No official reaction from the parties were available immediately but political sources said with their key leaders in jail the parties found the registration an difficult task.
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