Call to
National Parties Not to Field Candidates in the Three Hill Constituencies
Staff Correspondent,
CHT News
Friday, December 12, 2025
The United
Peoples Democratic Front (UPDF) has welcomed the announcement of the schedule
for the Thirteenth National Parliament Election by the Chief Election
Commission and has immediately called upon Dr. Yunus' government and the Chief
Election Commissioner A M M Nasir Uddin to take effective steps to create a
free, fair, and impartial democratic environment for elections in the
Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).
In a
statement given to the media today, Friday, 12 December 2025, UPDF President
Prasit Bikash Khisha made this appeal and said, 'The UPDF has always sought a
democratic solution to the Chittagong Hill Tracts problem. Despite severe
repressions, various provocations, and the pressure of its worker base, the
party has, for 27 years, continued its struggle to achieve the just demands of
the people of this region through democratic means.'
He stated
that as a democratic party, the UPDF participated in the National Parliamentary
Elections held in 2001, 2008, 2014, and 2018, and will similarly participate in
the upcoming Thirteenth National Parliament Election.
The UPDF
leader specially emphasized the necessity of ensuring representation of their
ethnic group in the National Parliament to highlight the problems, hopes,
aspirations, and demands of the backward Hill people of the Chittagong Hill
Tracts. Pending the fulfillment of the demand for 'reserved seats' for the Hill
people in the National Parliament, and considering the interests, sentiments,
and above all, the precarious existence of the Hill people in the region, he
called upon the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, NCP, and all other national political
parties not to field any Hill or non-Hill candidates in the three parliamentary
constituencies of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Prasit
Khisha earnestly requested all other political parties, organizations, civil
society, and all quarters in the Chittagong Hill Tracts to support the UPDF's
call to ensure proper representation of the Hill people in the National
Parliament.
At the same
time, he has also called upon the CHT-based parties not to form any alliance or
understanding with any national political party in the upcoming Thirteenth
National Parliament Election, which is scheduled to be held on February 12.
Regarding
the fair electoral environment in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Prasit Khisha
said, 'A fair and impartial electoral environment has not yet been created in
the Hills.' He commented that a fair electoral environment can never be created
while conducting searches of homes during military operations in Hill villages
in the name of suppressing so-called terrorism, occupying school buildings and
Vihars/places of worship, harassing, torturing, detaining, and intimidating
innocent people, and keeping the UPDF and other major parties of the country
outside the democratic process.
Therefore,
Prasit Khisha strongly demanded an immediate cessation of military operations
and the creation of a genuine democratic environment in the Hills for the sake
of a fair and impartial election.