United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) has welcomed the announcement of the schedule for the 13th parliamentary election slated for February 12 next year.
UPDF has also urged the Yunus-led interim government and Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin to take immediate and effective steps to ensure a free, fair, and peaceful election in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, said a press release issued by the party on Friday.
UPDF President Prasit Bikash Khisha said that the party has always sought a democratic solution to the CHT crisis. Despite longstanding repression, provocation, and pressure on its activists, UPDF has been pursuing the legitimate rights of the hill people through democratic means for the last 27 years, he added.
As a democratic political organization, the UPDF has participated in the national elections of 2001, 2008, 2014 and 2018, and intends to contest the upcoming 13th parliamentary polls as well.
Prasit Khisha stressed the need for proper representation of indigenous hill communities in the National Parliament, saying that their issues, expectations and demands must be voiced by members of their own ethnic communities. Until the demand for reserved seats for hill people is fulfilled, he called on all major political parties—including the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and NCP—not to nominate any candidate in the three parliamentary constituencies of the CHT, considering the vulnerable condition of the indigenous population.
He urged all political parties, civil society groups, and relevant stakeholders in the CHT to support the UPDF’s call for ensuring adequate representation for the hill people in Parliament.
Prasit Khisha also appealed to CHT-based political parties not to form alliances or reach compromises with any political party in the upcoming elections.
Commenting on the current electoral atmosphere in the CHT, he stated that level playing field has not yet been created in CHT. Saying that a democratic election is not possible in CHT, he emphasized the need for immediate steps to restore civil and democratic norms.
He also demanded an immediate end to army operations and called for the creation of a truly democratic environment to ensure free and impartial elections in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
