No decision on RPO amendment

The Election Commission (EC) will sit in a meeting again on August 30 to take a decision over the amendment to the Representation of the People Order (RPO) ahead of the next general election, report agencies.

Election Commissioner Md Rafiqul Islam said this while talking to reporters after the Commission's meeting over the RPO amendment at Nirbachan Bhaban in the city on Sunday.

"The discussion over RPO amendment has started. The decision over bringing changes to some articles of the RPO will be taken after several meetings," Rafiqul Islam said.

He, however, said they are yet to decide which articles of the RPO will see changes.

The Commissioner also said they are still not sure whether the proposal for RPO amendment can be sent to Parliament during its next session.

"We don't want to hurry in giving the final decision as we're looking for a good law," Rafiqul added.

Election Commissioner Mahbub, however, said, "There is no scope for amending the RPO in large scale right at this moment,"

He said the commission is mulling using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) on a limited scale in the upcoming general elections and the issue was discussed in today (Sunday)'s meeting. "But, no decision in this regard was made," he added.

Election commissioners Mahbub Talukdar, Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury and Kabita Khanam, who convened a committee to amend the law, were also present at the meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda.

The move to amend RPO comes months before the 11th parliamentary elections, though the EC held dialogues with stakeholders in July last year about the amendment.

Earlier this year, EC Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed said there will be no amendment to the RPO before the general elections.

However, Kabita said last week that the commission had been working to amend the RPO by including the use of EVMs in the parliamentary polls.