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8 days ago

SIGNING JULY CHARTER: NCC remains engaged to win over holdouts

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The National Consensus Commission (NCC) remains engaged with the political parties, particularly those that have not signed the July Charter for their opposition to the reforms and the demand for legal bindings.

It expects that some more left parties will sign the charter.

Gono Forum signed the charter on Sunday.

The commission held an informal meeting with the representatives of the left-leaning parties on Monday.

At the meeting, the parties shared their disagreements on the reforms and the final chapter in a written document.

Both sides tried to highlight their arguments and reach an agreement.

Twenty-five parties and alliances signed the charter at Friday's big event in the presence of Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus.

"We held a meeting with the representatives of the left-leaning parties on Monday.

We heard their arguments and responded. We are hopeful that they will sign the charter," a commission source told The Financial Express.

Dr Mushtaq Hossain, a standing committee member of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSaD), told The Financial Express his party, among the four leftist ones, had shared their views in a written document on Monday, explaining to the commission why they did not sign the charter.

He said they had also held informal discussions with the commission to voice their arguments and find ways to solve the issues.

However, there was little chance to reach an agreement on the unresolved issues and sign the charter, he added.

"I do not think we are going to sign the charter. However, we cannot say anything with 100 per cent certainty. The changes we demand in the charter will have to be agreed by the other parties," said Hossain.

The left parties also demanded including in the charter the agreed issues and not the ones with notes of dissent, he said.

Signing with notes of dissent was unnecessary, and parliament would implement those on the proposed constitutional reforms, he further said.

Hossain said they had demanded scrapping the introduction of the charter.

The introduction of the charter described the background of how the July uprising took place.

The Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (BaSaD), BaSaD (Marxist), and Bangladesh JaSaD did not sign the charter.

They said they would not sign it until some reforms were revised.

Meanwhile, the commission also remains engaged with the National Citizen Party (NCP), the key stakeholder of the uprising, to convince them to sign the charter.

However, no certain progress has been made.

NCC member Badiul Alam Majumdar told The Financial Express the commission remained engaged with the parties, but no schedule had been set for immediate formal meetings with them.

He said the commission was working with experts to finalise the recommendation, to be forwarded to the government, for how to implement the charter and the referendum.

Sources said the commission was thinking of arranging a referendum on the approval of the charter, but not on the reforms.

Regarding this, Majumdar said the commission had not finalised anything yet and was exploring the options.

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