Bangladesh election schedule to be announced in 1st week of November

DHAKA, Oct. 19 (NsNewsWire) — The Bangladesh Election Commission said on Thursday that it will announce the schedule for the upcoming parliamentary polls in the 1st week of November, reports Xinhua.
Election Commission (EC) Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed made the statement while talking to journalists after a program on Thursday in capital Dhaka.
He had earlier said the third week of December is an appropriate time for holding the national elections as the term of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Awami League (AL) party will end in January, 2019.
No specific date for the country’s 11th national elections has yet been fixed.
AL, which rose to power with a landslide election victory in early 2009 and won its second term in 2014, now eyes for the third consecutive victory.
AL is facing challenges from former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies, which boycotted the 2014 elections.
BNP has been demanding parliament polls under a non-party government and release of Khaleda Zia who was jailed in February for five years in a graft case.  Enditem