DHAKA, Oct 13: Bangladesh’s Election Commission extended a deadline on Monday for registration of political parties by five days in a further effort to woo all major parties to take part in the parliamentary election due on Dec 18.

The commission will receive applications from political parties seeking to contest the election until Oct 20, instead of a previously set deadline of Oct 15, a commission official said on Monday.

Extension of the application date was requested by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia and its main ally the Jamaat-i-Islami party.

The extension came a day before both the parties were due to hold talks separately with the chief of the country’s army-backed interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, to discuss election preparations and related reforms.

The Dec-18 election will cap the interim government’s nearly two years in power and move the country back toward democracy.

The government has vowed to hold a free and fair election with participation by all major parties to establish a credible, workable and stable democracy.

BNP’s main rival, the Awami League, led by another former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, earlier collected registration forms from the commission and said it would take part in the coming vote.—Reuters