New parties to get EC registration by March

The Election Commission (EC) is most likely to complete the registration process of new political parties by March as 76 parties are seeking registration with the Commission ahead of the 11th parliamentary elections, reports UNB.

An EC committee, headed by its additional secretary Mokhlesur Rahman, has started scrutinising the applications to know whether the parties fulfill the conditions for registration.

The Commission last week sent a list of 76 new parties to the Home Ministry asking the intelligence agencies to examine if there is any banned political outfit among the applicants, said EC Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed.

"The committee will submit its report to the EC Secretariat on March 8 next and then place it in the Commission's meeting for its final decision," he told the news agency.

Mokhlesur Rahman, also convener of the scrutiny committee, said, "There's a possibility to complete the registration process by March."

But, EC officials said they are not getting the existence of offices and activities of many of the 76 political parties during their initial scrutiny, which is one of the prerequisites to be eligible for registration.

They said they have found commercial entities, houses and shops in the office locations the parties mentioned in their applications. This time, the Commission may award registration to a handful of parties.