EC's power enhanced by JS thru' approving electoral laws: CEC
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Chief election commissioner (CEC) Dr ATM Shamsul Huda Tuesday said the power of the Commission has been enhanced by parliament through approving the electoral laws removing misinformation about clipping the Election Commission's (EC) wings through enacting the RPO, reports UNB.
"Nobody has taken away our power. Rather our power is enhanced," he told journalists replying to a question in the afternoon after attending the ceremony of signing agreement on 'Construction of Upazila and Regional Server Stations for Electoral Databases (CSSED' at the EC Secretariat.
Referring to the newspaper reports, Dr Huda said the honourable parliament, which is the supreme lawmaker, changed a sub-clause about registration of the political parties and annulled the no-vote rule keeping all other rules intact in the amended Representation of People's Order (RPO).
"The EC was made more powerful giving the power of cancelling the registration of political parties," he said, adding that the Parliament had to take the decision about 122 electoral matters in short time and enacted the laws given by the EC.
The CEC thinks that the cancellation of registration of political parties, if found violating the rules, was not related to the power of the Commission. "The countrymen will judge and reject the political parties."
Replying to a question he said the Commission would soon send letter to the Ministry of Law to correct the clerical errors found in the amended RPO. "We'll soon send letter to the Ministry to correct the errors."
Asked about the annulment of the no-vote rule suggested by the EC, Dr Huda said the EC decided to incorporate this law in the RPO, drafted during the emergency rule as part of electoral reforms, but not a single political party did support this EC decision. And it was annulled by the Parliament.
"Nobody has taken away our power. Rather our power is enhanced," he told journalists replying to a question in the afternoon after attending the ceremony of signing agreement on 'Construction of Upazila and Regional Server Stations for Electoral Databases (CSSED' at the EC Secretariat.
Referring to the newspaper reports, Dr Huda said the honourable parliament, which is the supreme lawmaker, changed a sub-clause about registration of the political parties and annulled the no-vote rule keeping all other rules intact in the amended Representation of People's Order (RPO).
"The EC was made more powerful giving the power of cancelling the registration of political parties," he said, adding that the Parliament had to take the decision about 122 electoral matters in short time and enacted the laws given by the EC.
The CEC thinks that the cancellation of registration of political parties, if found violating the rules, was not related to the power of the Commission. "The countrymen will judge and reject the political parties."
Replying to a question he said the Commission would soon send letter to the Ministry of Law to correct the clerical errors found in the amended RPO. "We'll soon send letter to the Ministry to correct the errors."
Asked about the annulment of the no-vote rule suggested by the EC, Dr Huda said the EC decided to incorporate this law in the RPO, drafted during the emergency rule as part of electoral reforms, but not a single political party did support this EC decision. And it was annulled by the Parliament.