Dhaka: A delegation of Jatiya Oikyafront, led by Dr Kamal Hossain, will meet the Election Commission on Wednesday, seeking deferment of the national election by a month.

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir came up with the announcement after a meeting of Oikyafront steering committee at Dr Kamal Hossain’s Motijheel Chamber, reports the UNB.

He said Kamal Hossain along with the Oikyafront’s steering committee members will hold a meeting with the EC at Nirbachan Bhaban at 12pm on Wednesday.

‘The Election Commission, I think, failed to take steps for holding a free, fair and credible election. The Commission was supposed to talk to political parties before the election schedule announcement, but they didn’t,’ he said.

The Oikyafront spokesman said they have got upset as the EC fixed December 30 for holding the election without any discussion with the political parties. ‘We think it’s extremely essential to accept our demand for delaying the election by one month.’

He said foreign election observers will not have any scope to monitor the election if it is held on December 30 as they will remain busy due to the Christmas and New Year events.

Under, the circumstances, he said they will hold the meeting with the EC and talk about their various demands and observations on the election.

Besides, Fakhrul said Dr Kamal Hossain will exchange views with the editors of different print media on Friday and then will sit with the heads of electronic media.

Replying to a question, he said they still did not settle the seat-sharing issue with their alliance partners.

Earlier in the day, Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda said there is no way to defer the date of the 11th national parliamentary elections further.

‘There’s no scope to delay it further. So, it won’t be possible to defer the date as we’ve already completed all the preparations for holding the election on December 30,’ he said while inaugurating the training session of returning officers at the Election Commission office here in the morning.