The major political parties have apparently softened their positions on joining the December 18 polls though some disagreements remained unresolved in the latest dialogues between the parties and the military-backed government.( The New Age BD )

Complete lifting of state of emergency before polls and deferring the upazila polls to a comfortable time after December 18 Jatiya Sangsad elections still remained the issues of contention as the government stuck to its guns on the long-standing demands of the parties.

At separate meetings with Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the government on Thursday assured that it will take up appropriate measures for spontaneous electioneering and ensuring security of the voters during the December 18 polls.

The government also announced that it would ensure the highest security for the two top leaders –Sheikh Hasina of AL and Khaleda Zia of BNP.

‘We will take appropriate measures on appropriate time,’ said commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman, a key negotiator from the government side.

The parties, which came up with almost identical demands, insisted on complete lifting of state of emergency to allow them to go for an all-out electioneering and deferring of the dates of upazila elections, which were set for December 24 and 28.

But the government sees no wrong in holding upazila election as per the schedules set by the Election Commission.

In the afternoon, the panel of government advisers led by chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed agreed on seven out of nine demands of Awami League.

The party’s demands included release of the party chief Sheikh Hasina, now paroled for medical treatment abroad, guarantee for her contesting the national elections, ensuring her security, lifting emergency and deferring the upazila polls.

After the meeting, AL leaders said that they advanced a step forward to the election, but some minor differences still existed which they hoped to be narrowed through further discussions.

In the evening, a 13-member BNP delegation placed a seven-point demand to the interim government. The demands included complete withdrawal of emergency, deferring the upazila poll dates, scrapping the plan of fresh delimitation of parliamentary constituencies, creating a level playing field for all players and cancellation of amended Representation of the People Order.

The government responded positively to these demands saying that both the sides agreed on most of the points.

“Excepting one [deferment of upazila election], we have agreed in principle on almost all the points,’ said Hossain Zillur, adding that the remaining differences will be minimised through discussion.

Zillur assured the BNP delegation that the state of emergency would go in phases, but stopped short of telling when.

‘The government talked about consensus on six out of our seven demands,’ said BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain.

The military-backed government started the dialogue on May 22 to bring mainstream political parties to the election path. The series of talks substantially narrowed the differences and was followed by developments like parole of Sheikh Hasina and bail of Khaleda Zia in graft cases, prompting the major power contenders to soften their stances gradually and finally applying to Election Commission for registration, a must for contesting national polls.