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LAW MISINTERPRETATION

Future of a fresh voter list in doubt

SHAKHAWAT LITON
The Election Commission (EC) appears to be in a quandary about preparing a fresh voter list for the next parliamentary election as the EC finds 'misinterpretation of law' by itself in preparing the last four voter lists.
The EC prepared fresh voter lists in 1983, 1990, 1995 and 2000
without amending the Electoral
Rolls Ordinance 1982 which Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) MA Aziz said were not done lawfully, but following a convention.
The EC is yet to decide about making a fresh voter list or revising the existing one. EC officials now believe if they have to make a fresh list, the ordinance will have to be amended and it will delay the huge task.
SEE PAGE 15 COL 4 FROM PAGE 1
Asked, Justice Abdur Rouf, who served as CEC during 1990-95, said they made the voter list in 1995 in accordance with law. Talking to The Daily Star, he said the ordinance clearly says that a fresh list must be prepared before any election.
The EC Secretariat was ready a few months ago to start work on a fresh voter list. But the immediate past CEC MA Syed did not take a final decision about it and preferred to wait for takeover by his successor, MAAziz.
But Aziz, who is a judge of the Appellate Division, pointed out the legal matter and said there is no provision for preparing a fresh voter list in the 1982 ordinance that suggests revision of the existing one.
Aziz said this on July 20 after an EC meeting that took the decision to arrange dialogues with political parties on voter list. After the meeting, the CEC and two election commissioners examined the ordinance and expressed similar views.
"The laws will have to be amended to prepare a fresh voter list. We will ask the government to amend the law if majority of the political parties wants a fresh list,'' the CEC said on Tuesday at a dialogue with the political parties.
But at the same dialogue the CEC referred to section 19 of the Electoral Rolls Rules, 1982 and said there is no legal bar to preparing a voter list afresh. The comment contradicts his own and his two colleagues' views that the ordinance should be amended for making a fresh list.
Amid such a discord, the EC sit in dialogues with the political parties to seek their opinion on the issue, though it has turned into a farce amid boycott of most of the political parties including the main opposition Awami League.
WHAT THE LAWS SAY
On preparation of voter list, the Electoral Rolls Ordinance, 1982 says: for the purpose of elections to different elective bodies, there shall be prepared electoral rolls for each electoral area or constituency, as the case may be, upon registration of voters.
Senior officials of the EC Secretariat said the EC decisions to prepare the last four voter lists were made on the basis of this provision.
Four out of the five CECs served during 1982-2000 were justices but no question had been raised against the decision of preparing fresh lists.
"It is the constitutional duty of the election commission to prepare voter list for elections," a senior EC official said on condition of anonymity.
Officials said there is a provision in the ordinance for updating the voter list but it is not mandatory. "It depends on the EC's directives," said an official.
The provision says: the electoral roll shall, unless otherwise directed by the commission for reasons to be recorded in writing, be revised in the prescribed matter by reference to the qualifying date before each election to (an elected body).
WAITING FOR DECISION
The EC Secretariat is still waiting for a decision whether a fresh voter list will be prepared or the existing one will be revised. The secretariat has, however, prepared a budget of over Tk 200 crore for a fresh list.
"It is a huge task. So we wanted to start it long ago," a senior EC Secretariat official told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity.
He said it will need at least six months to prepare a voter list for the next parliamentary election, which is slated for early 2007.