TDS Desk:

Over seven months, the National Consensus Commission held talks with 33 political parties and alliances. The dialogue culminated on October 17 last year with the signing of the “July National Charter, 2025” at a ceremony at the South Plaza of the National Parliament. Twenty-four parties signed that day, with one more adding its signature later. Absent from the ceremony was the National Citizen Party (NCP), which has yet to sign the charter. Despite this, the party has launched a vigorous campaign urging a “Yes” vote in the upcoming referendum on the charter it declined to sign. The referendum is scheduled for February 12, the day of the 13th parliamentary election.

A senior NCP leader said the party preferred to focus on implementing the charter rather than signing it. On Tuesday, the party’s convener, Nahid Islam, inaugurated a “Vote-er Gari (Vehicle of Vote)” in the capital’s Banglamotor area to campaign for a “Yes” vote. The vehicle is touring streets carrying slogans urging citizens to vote “Yes” for the charter.

The Election Commission formally announced on December 4 that the 13th general election and the referendum would be held on the same day. Asked whether the NCP would now sign the charter amid its formal campaign, the party’s member secretary, Akhter Hossen, told journalists: “We refrained from signing over the issue of giving the July Charter a legal foundation. At the time, the government also urged us to sign. We believe the subsequent ‘July National Charter (Constitutional Reform) Implementation Order, 2025’, issued by the president, remains unclear. We also see signing the charter as a social formality. We therefore place greater weight on implementation than on ceremony. Our aim is to secure public backing for a ‘Yes’ vote in the upcoming referendum.”

Two days before the October 17 signing, the Consensus Commission convened an urgent meeting with political parties at the Foreign Service Academy, chaired by its head and chief adviser to the interim government Dr Muhammad Yunus, to address unresolved issues. After that meeting, Akhter Hossen set out several conditions for the NCP’s endorsement. “We demanded that the National Consensus Commission and the government present a clear roadmap to the nation for implementing the July National Charter,” he said, “including clarity on the nature of the implementation order, the referendum questions, and how these issues would be incorporated into a future constitution.”

The charter was eventually signed without firm decisions on how it would be implemented. About a month later, on November 13, President Mohammed Shahabuddin issued the “July National Charter (Constitutional Reform) Implementation Order, 2025”. The order clears the way for a referendum on February 12 covering 48 of the charter’s 84 reform proposals, all related to constitutional amendment.

The NCP is now ready to sign the July Charter, having seen its demand for a legal framework addressed, according to the party’s Dhaka Metropolitan South Convener Alauddin Mohammad. He told journalists: “When political parties were invited to sign the charter, we demanded that the charter be given legal force. We didn’t sign due to that demand. In response to our demand, the government later issued the July Charter Implementation Order.”

He added that the party now expected a further step. “We hope the government will offer the NCP, and any other party that refrained for the same reason, an opportunity to sign before the referendum,” he said. “Such an initiative would be very positive. We are now working for the referendum and the charter’s implementation. Signing would give that work greater meaning. We are campaigning for a ‘Yes’ vote and will continue to do so. This is a matter of our existence. We will work to ensure a ‘Yes’ victory at any cost.”

Asked about the procedure for signing at this stage, former NCC Member and SHUJAN Secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar said he was no longer involved, as the commission’s tenure had ended. “I’m not aware of how the signing process would proceed from here,” he told journalists.

The constitutional law expert Dr Sharif Bhuiyan, a Supreme Court senior advocate who served on the Constitutional Reform Commission and as a legal specialist to the Consensus Commission, outlined the legal limits. “An interim government has the authority to hold a referendum to seek public opinion,” he said. “But it doesn’t have the power to impose anything on the people. That’s why the final stage of constitutional reform must be approved by elected representatives in parliament. Under the reform order, those representatives would function as a constitution reform council. There’s no legal mechanism to compel them to implement the intent of the referendum. It remains a moral, principled, and political obligation.”

The signing ceremony on October 17 last year at the parliament’s South Plaza brought representatives of 25 parties and alliances onto the stage. While 24 including BNP and Jamaat signed that day, Dr Kamal Hossain’s Gono Forum attended but added its signature two days later. Parties that have yet to sign include the NCP, the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), the Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (BASAD), BASAD (Marxist), and Bangladesh JASAD.