The Election Commission's (EC) preparations for upazila polls in October continue at full throttle while its mow to make the elections non-partisan remains mired in uncertainty due to a recent High Court (HC) ruling.

Its earlier bid to keep political parties off the August 4 polls to four city corporations and nine municipalities failed after the HC on July 31 scrapped the restrictions that the electoral rules slapped on the parties.

Now the commission is undecided whether to ask the government for a new provision in the upazila parishad ordinance to organise die polls with the political parties having no roles to play, sources said.

The HC in its July 31 ruling said the Local Government (City Corporation) Ordinance 2008 and the Local Government (Municipality) Ordinance 2008 do not provide for depoliticisation. So, it noted, the rules in the electoral code of conduct to dispense with the use of political affiliation constitute a

violation of the mother ordinances.

Election Commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain told The Daily Star Wednesday that they were waiting for the certified copy of tlieHC's verdict.

"After going through the court ruling, we will decide whether to ask the government to incorporate new provisions in the upazila ordinance to restrict the political parties' involvement in the polls," he added.

However, legal experts said it might not be possible to debar the

FROM PAGE 1

political parties from the upazila polls even by amending the upazila parishad ordinance as that would again contradict the constitution that acknowledges functions and activities of the political parties.

The HC in its ruling on August 4 polls too upheld the constitutional provisions. It observed that since the rights of the political parties are enshrined in the constitution, the rules restricting the use of political affiliation in the city corporation and municipality polls are illegal.

lite court also said die EC has no jurisdiction to make policy decisions like determining political characteristics of the elections.

I.egal experts said the HC ruling on the August 4 polls will be applicable also to other local government elections.

They said if the government amends the upazila parishad ordinance to enforce restrictions on the political parties it might undermine the constitutional right to association.

POLLS PREPARATIONS

Despite the uncertainty over what would be the nature of upazila polls.

the EC is gearing up to hold the long due polls to over 300 out of 482 upazilas in October.

It is working to announce the election schedule next month, sources in the EC said.

On its instructions, the field level election offices in around 50 districts have already gathered necessary information on polling stations in the upazilas that might go to polls in October.

The political parties including Awami League (AL) and BNP have been opposed to the idea of holding upazila polls before the parliamentary election planned to be held in the thi rd week of December.

The EC Secretariat will soon ask the finance ministry to disburse funds for upazila elections. Around Tk 200 crore was allocated for polls in the current fiscal year, added the EC sources.

Currently, the EC is drafting rules for the upazila polls. Ilie election rules are expected to be finalised in a week.

Senior officials in the EC Secretariat said they have already drafted an electoral code of conduct imposing restrictions on political parties. But the EC has yet to examine those.

They said the commission would finalise the electoral code once the rules are settled.

Meantime, the EC has drafted proposals outlining ceilings on election expenditures for the contestants.

According to the proposals, persons vying to be upazila chairmen and vice-chairmen would be allowed to spend up to a maximum of Tk 10 lakh if the number of voters in their upazilas is two lakh and above.

For candidates in upazilas with the number of constituents ranging between one lakh and two lakh, Tk 7 lakh would be the upper limit for spending.

In upazilas having less than one lakh voters, Tk 5 lakh would be the most to be allowed as a candidate's election expenses.