The Election Commission (EC) is set to announce the schedules for the 13th national parliamentary election and the July National Charter referendum this evening.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin will unveil the schedules in an address to the nation at 6pm on Thursday, Senior EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed told reporters during a briefing at the EC headquarters in Agargaon on Wednesday.

He said the schedules will be announced for all 300 constituencies as no complications remain regarding boundary delimitations. “The CEC will announce the schedules,” he added.

Earlier in the day, the CEC and other commissioners met President Mohammed Shahabuddin at Bangabhaban, following established practice ahead of election schedule announcements. They briefed the President about overall preparations, field-level progress, the current political environment, and the law-and-order situation.

The President assured full cooperation for holding a free and fair election and deemed it reasonable to extend voting hours by one hour. The EC officials briefed the media upon returning from Bangabhaban after the nearly two-hour meeting.

Following the student-public uprising, the Awami League government stepped down on August 5, 2024. An interim government led by Prof. Yunus took office on August 8. Sixteen months later, the EC is now ready to declare the polls schedule.

A total of 12,76,95,183 voters are expected to participate in the 13th parliamentary election. To accommodate them, the EC has finalized 42,766 polling centres.

As the national election and referendum will be held on the same day, voting time has been extended by one hour. Additionally, two secret voting booths will be placed inside each room to save time.