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EC, CARETAKER GOVT

B Chy, Kamal unveil reform proposals

Staff Correspondent
Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh and Jatiya Oikya Mancha yesterday put forward a series of reform proposals for the Election Commission (EC) and the caretaker government, including appointment of a nonpolitical head of caretaker government on the basis of a consensus among all political parties.
The head of caretaker government should not have any involvement, present or past, with any
political party and must not be a beneficiary of any political party, according to the proposal.
Oikya Mancha Convenor Dr Kamal Hossain and former president and Bikalpadhara President AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury at a joint press conference yesterday rejected the chief election commissioner's dialogue proposal and put forward their reform proposals.
Both the parties suggested appointing four election
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commissioners under one chief election commissioner (CEC), which they considered necessary, although the constitution does not specify the number of commissioners, and for enhancing the performance of the EC under huge workload.
They suggested appointing impartial and competent persons as the CEC and the commissioners for the tenure between two caretaker governments after a discussion with the political parties and alliances.
The reform proposal said the EC will have full financial and administrative freedom from the control of the executive. Budgets for the commission should be approved according to its requisition and the commission should be able to spend independently.
The EC should have complete independence to appoint and terminate its human resources.
The proposal said the new voter list should have to be completed three months before the election. Photographs attached to voter list, thumb impressions and passports should be considered as proof of identity of the voters. The voter identity card and casting of vote through electronic voting machine should be ensured in the future.
It proposed to raise the existing election cost limit in the light of reality.
The leaders said the mobile phone network should not be switched off during the election for the sake of countering vote rigging, preventing violence and to facilitate the members of the media and law enforcement agencies.
The reform proposals also include increasing parliament seats to 400 from the existing 300 and electing those 100 candidates through indirect election, conducting direct elections to women seats and making compulsory for each party to nominate 20 percent women candidates.
To make the post of the speaker more non-partisan, the parties proposed that the speaker will have
to resign from his party after being elected to the post. He will be considered elected unopposed if he wants to take part in the next national elections and then he will be considered a neutral member of parliament.
On the eligibility of Justice KM Hassan as the next head of caretaker government, Dr Badruddoza Chowdhury said he had involvement with a political party.
On the resignation of Kader Siddiqui, president of Krishak Sramik Janata League, from the Jatiya Oikya Mancha, Dr Kamal Hossain said, "In democracy everybody has the right to join in and quit. Our Mancha is open for all."
He appreciated the gesture of Kader Siddiqui that he made no complaint against the Mancha after leaving it.
Firoze M Hassan, acting general secretary of Bikalpadhara, presented the written statement at the press conference. Oikya Mancha leader and Gono Forum General Secretary Saifuddin Ahmed Manik, Member Secretary Commander (retd) Abdur Rauf were present among others.