Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin briefs the media at his Nirbachan Bhaban office on Thursday. September 25, 2025: “We are making final preparations to hold the election in February, before Ramadan. “You all can see, and you all know that we are making earnest efforts for the necessary preparations,” he told reporters at his Nirbachan Bhaban office.
“The chief adviser, who is now abroad in New York for the UN meeting, has been stating that Bangladesh will hold an election by February and a change of power would take place through a free and fair poll,” CEC said.
“We are moving to implement the words of the chief adviser,” he said.
“We’d rather not be swayed by anyone’s direction. We strive to do what we believe is the right thing and what our conscience dictates. We want to be following a straight path, not a crooked one and do our work faithfully, without bias or favour.”
The CEC stressed that political parties are, more than anyone else, the principal actors in elections and that their cooperation is vital to holding a clean election.
Quoting a newspaper report, Nasir Uddin said that if everyone took to the field with the idea of committing such fouls, it would not be possible even for a referee to save the game from being spoiled.
“You have to stay away from the fouls, here. It’s hard to (hold the election fairly) if those who play don’t play with a conscience, and they come on to the field to commit fouls,” he said, noting that EC will take all precautions so that such acts cannot happen.
I am not saying those contesting should be coming into the electoral field to mess it up, but they should anchor a good election,” he picked.
Asked about the National Citizen Party (NCP)’s demand for the “Water Lily” election symbol, the CEC said that the EC senior secretary has already talked to the press about it.
“Nagorik Oikya sought the ‘water lily’ symbol, initially led by Mahmudur Rahman Manna, after which the party delegation met me. Later, NCP applied for the same symbol,” he said, adding that Nagorik Oikya sent two letters, one after another, to get the symbol.
“In response to the recent letter from NCP, he clarified that they have every right to send letters as they are a political party and one of the stakeholders of ECI.
“I see no problem in that. We’ll talk about that in the commission meeting. We would decide on the next steps in our commission meeting,” he said.
When asked to comment on the recent statement of an NCP leader, the CEC stated that politicians have the right to speak. “But we can’t respond in kind. We are better listeners. We will operate in accordance with the law. We’re not calling it a threat,” he said of their comments.
In reply to a question about whether the coming election would be held under PR or FPTP, “There is no provision for it (PR) in the Representation of the People’s Order (RPO).
“RPO is there before me. That is how votes are garnered; it is in the RPO,” he added.
“I am waiting for the February election, and there are all kinds of arrangements to have the election in February,” he added.