DHAKA – Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda today asked officials concerned to treat equally all candidates vying for the 11th parliamentary elections scheduled to be held on December 30.

“The candidates must be considered as general ones . . . the government officials involved in the electoral process should treat them equally and neutrally,” he said.

Nurul Huda was speaking at the inaugural session of a daylong training workshop of the government officials involved in electoral process at Nirbachan Bhaban in city’s Agargaon area.

“They (candidates) will be indentified with their election symbols, not by their parties,” he added.

“When a candidate comes to the election field, the officials will only see him or her as a candidate as there are independent candidates also, he said.

He hoped that the 11th parliamentary election will be free, fair and competitive as all the candidates submitted their nomination papers to the Returning Officer at its office in a disciplined manner on Wednesday.

He also expressed firm conviction that every candidate of any political party will obey the code of conduct during the polls.

Highlighting spontaneous participation of the political parties in the polls, he said 3,056 nomination forms have been submitted against 300 seats across the country, which is a record.

To the election officials, he said, “Those who work directly in the election process, you (officials) will train them.”

EC Secretary Helaluddin Ahmed also spoke on the training workshop where 400 officials are being imparted training.