The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) will not join the Election Commission's (EC) ongoing dialogue with the political parties of the country.

"We already informed the Election Commission that we will not come," BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told The Business Standard on Wednesday (20 July). 

"This Election commission has no power to hold a free, fair, and credible election. Without a neutral caretaker government, it is not possible. So such kind of dialogue has no value," he added. 

Apart from BNP, the 20-party alliance Bangladesh Muslim League and Kalyan Party boycotted the dialogue called by the EC.

Even though the party has declined to join the election dialogue, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal has said that the EC will wait for BNP to join the dialogue. 

The CEC did not give make any comment when asked whether it will take any special initiative to bring BNP into the dialogue.

The EC was supposed to hold dialogues with three parties including BNP today, who were scheduled to attend at 3pm. But they notified they will not be joining. 

Amid uncertainty over the participation of all the political parties in the country, the EC is holding dialogues with the country's 39 registered political parties on the upcoming twelfth national election. EC is scheduled to hold talks with four parties a day until 31 July.