EC relaxes provisions for parties' registration

FE Team | Published: September 23, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Ruling out the possibility of jettisoning the electoral reforms as demanded by BNP and its allies, the Election Commission (EC), instead, agreed to relax some provisions for registration of the political parties, reports UNB.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dr ATM Shamsul Huda Monday said the government would permit the political parties to arrange their party council with some 5,000 to 10,000 or more party delegates for amending their constitutions in line with the politico-electoral reforms done in the interim period.
Alternatively, the parties can submit to the Commission their provisional party constitutions pledging necessary changes that are prerequisites for registration. And these draft constitutions accommodating the reforms will have to be finalised within six months of the first session of parliament, he told a press briefing at the EC Secretariat in the afternoon.
The EC came up with the offer for bending the rules barely three days after Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed announced the date for general election on December 18.
"The Election Commission has given enough concessions considering the demands of the political parties. Now nothing is in our hand. The rest of the game will have to be played by the political parties," the CEC said in his conclusive words about demands of the parties.
About the revised RPO, he said the EC finalised the Representation of People Order (Amendment) - 2008 through consultation with the major political parties. But, he regretted, later those parties have started criticising the commission for bringing some changes in the RPO.
"There is no time in hand of the EC. So we cannot afford to have further discussion on the RPO. The nation has been waiting long for the next parliamentary election," he said.
It is impossible for the EC to fulfill the demands of all of the parties. The EC has been playing the role of coordinator, the CEC said.
He said that the political parties spoke against the EC's move to ban the student wings and foreign units of the political parties. The EC also supports having different student organisations, "but they must not run under party constitution."
About the reaction of BNP and its allies expressed during the dialogue with the commission, he said, "We are shocked and disappointed with the attitudes of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ)."
The parties in the BNP-led coalition asked for rolling back the reformed rules and hold election under the previous RPO.
Save BNP, Jamaat and IOJ, he said, 13 other political parties have agreed to register with the commission fulfilling the EC-set prerequisites.
"Holding talks with BNP and its allies, we are surprised, as Jamaat and IOJ opposed the registration. In the earlier two rounds of talks with the EC, they had reached consensus on some issues. But in the third round, they completely changed their tune," the CEC said on a note of resentment. Explaining the strict electoral rules framed against the backdrop of past crisis, he said the political parties can give maximum Tk 1,50,000 as election expenditure to a candidate for contesting any election.
The CEC hoped that the political parties would come forward with patience, rising above petty party interest, and work for greater national interest.
Asked about the announcement of election dates by the CA instead of the CEC, the CEC said, "I was supposed to declare polling dates. But, when I saw that the CA would address the nation, then, after consultation with him, I told him to declare the specific dates for elections in his address to the nation."
Asked whether the EC will tell the government to lift the emergency before the parliamentary election, as demanded by the parties, he said the Commission would request the government "to create a congenial atmosphere for holding a free, fair and black money and muscle-free election in the country."
About Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) election, the CEC said the commission has no plan to hold the DCC polls before the parliamentary election that will be followed by upazila polls. "We don't want to keep anything in the intervening period," he said.
Replying to a question, Dr Huda said the schedule for the general and upazila elections would be announced after finalising the voter list for all areas of the country.
Election Commissioners M Sohul Hussain and M Sakhawat Hossain, and EC Secretary M Humayun Kabir were present at the press conference.