Bangladesh: Jamaat-e-Islami demands for reforms ahead of elections

Dhaka [Bangladesh], July 20 (ANI): Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamic party in Bangladesh, demanded for reforms ahead of the national elections, scheduled for February next year.
It held a national rally with several agendas which included issues such as ensuring of a level playing field, fundamental reforms, and holding national elections through a PR system.
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami is the largest Islamic party in the Muslim majority South Asian country of 170 million people.
Its demands included ensuring a level playing field for free, fair, impartial and peaceful elections, prosecuting all genocides by the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, necessary fundamental reforms, implementing the July Charter and Declaration, rehabilitating the families of those martyred and injured in the July Uprising, and holding national elections through the PR system.
A national rally was held at Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital on Saturday, at the initiative of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. Jamaat also demanded that voting facilities be provided to more than 10 million expatriates.
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Dr Shafiqur Rahman presided over the rally.
Earlier in July, Bangladesh's Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus directed the law-enforcing agencies to complete all preparations by December for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Around 8 lakh law enforcement personnel will be engaged, and they will undergo further training before the election, reports United News of Bangladesh (UNB).
The Chief Adviser instructed to take preparations for bringing some 16,000 vulnerable polling stations throughout the country under CCTV monitoring network to ensure peaceful balloting in the upcoming national election.
The measures that are being considered also include the installation of cameras on the bodies of police members in the vulnerable polling stations, he added.
Besides, this time the members of police and other forces will be deployed for seven days instead of the traditional five days during the election in a bid to resist any sort of violence ahead of the vote and prevent the deterioration of law and order after the vote, said the press secretary.
Earlier in June, Yunus hinted that national elections would be held in February in 2026.
Meanwhile, India reiterated that elections in Bangladesh, scheduled for April 2026 should be credible, democratic, peaceful, and all-inclusive.
Responding to a query on Bangladesh general elections after former Bangladesh PM, Sheikh Hasina, was ousted in a student-led uprising in August last year, Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal in weekly media briefing said, "You know our point of view. We have said that as a democracy we would welcome holding of elections, that is inclusive and includes everybody in its fold."
This comes after the recent agreement between the Chief Executive and a major political party on holding early elections. (ANI)