US Ambassador in Dhaka Patricia A Butenis at a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda yesterday stressed the need for issuing a timeline for holding the stalled ninth parliamentary elections.

Butenis said they also discussed the Election Commission's (EC) projected electoral reforms, its preparation for a voter list, voter identity cards and reforms of political parties.

"We are impressed with the ongoing activities of the Election Commission...We urged the Election Commission to declare a timeframe when the elections are likelv to be held, because the people of Bangladesh want to know it," the US ambassador told reporters after the meeting.

A few US embassy officials accompanied Butenis at the meeting with theCEC.

The people are concerned about the election and so, the government should disclose its measures regarding holding of the election, the US ambassador said, adding that they assured the EC of providing all assistance in holding a free and fair election.

Neither the CEC nor any of the election commissioners talked to reporters after the meeting.

However, when contacted through the EC Secretariat officials, the CEC told a group of journalists that the US ambassador made a courtesy call and that he did not have anything to say in this regard.

The EC Secretariat officials said the CEC will speak at a press briefing tomorrow. The CEC may talk about a tentative timeframe for holding the stalled elections and the EC's progress regarding electoral reforms, they said.

The reconstituted EC has not yet specified any timeframe for holding the stalled January 22 elections but initiated a massive task for electoral reforms in February. It later announced to complete the task by July this year.

The CEC had earlier disclosed the EC's plan for simultaneously preparing a voter list with photographs and national identity cards at an estimated cost of Tk 350 crore. The EC Secretariat is now preparing a project proposal for the task.

At the end of last year, the EC Secretariat prepared a project proposal for voter identity cards, according to which it would require two years and three months to do the task.