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EC watches time tick away

Proposed changes to electoral laws yet to be formalised; party registration, reforms may not be ensured before JS polls

Shakhawat Liton
The Election Commission (EC) might not be able to ensure registration of the political parties and intra-party reforms before the ninth parliamentary polls due to time constraints.
The proposed provisions to that end have yet to be laid down.
According to the electoral roadmap announced in July last year, those were supposed to come into force by February and require the political parties to register with the EC by June this year.
With the national election planned for the third week of December, the parties were to get four months to amend their constitutions and have new committees
through councils to meet the proposed criteria for registration
But the EC could not even begin the registration task for absence of the necessary laws.
Observers say both the commission and the caretaker government are to be blamed for the delay. While the commission took time way longer than necessary to firm up the proposals, slow decisionmaking of the government meant obstacles to the EC’s move to have political parties’ opinions on electoral reforms.
On August 6, the cabinet approved the proposed amendments to the Representation of People's Order (RPO) 1972 with a provision for mandatory registration of the political parties.
Since then, about two weeks have passed but an ordinance to that effect has yet to be promulgated.
Election officials said even if the draft proposals are made into laws this month, the EC will have only two months to get the political parties register with it. It will have to announce schedule by early November to hold the long-stalled parliamentary election in December.
Meanwhile, the major political parties including Awami League (AL) and BNP wait for the new electoral provisions and withdrawal of the state of emergency to start working towards registration.
They have long been calling for the military-backed admmisrra-tion to lift the state of emergency allowing them to convene to amend their constitutions and bring about intra- party reforms.
Senior leaders say holding national councils and electing committees at different levels warrant massive efforts and time, and it's not possible to pull those off in two months.
Besides, the parties stay opposed to some of the criteria proposed for registration. 1 hey describe those as attempts to pull ranks on them.
“We are not against registration. But some of the criteria that the Election Commission has proposed will not help the political parties thrive," BNP Vice-president MK Anwar told The Daily Star yesterday.
He termed the criteria for registration unrealistic and ambitious.
“Most of the major political parties will have to amend their constitutions since they hardly match the proposed criteria. And making amendments is always a huge task as it requires involvement of the grassroots." observed Anwar, also former agriculture minister.
As per the proposed changes in the electoral laws, AL BNP and Jatiya Party- (JP) must sever ties with their front organisations and elect new committees through councils to be registered with the EC.
.AL Presidium Member Suranjit Sengupta said the EC has already failed with regard to the time it set itself for registration of the political parties.
“It's quite difficult to hold a national council in such a short time. Awami League will need at It least four to fire months to organise councils," he toldThe Daily Star.
"Moreover, there remains the state of emergency, a serious obstacle to holding council."
The former AL lawmaker from Sunamganj said the EC would better act promptly and realistically to remove doubt from the public mind over the holding of parliamentary polls.
JP acting chairman Anisul Islam Mahmud observed that pessimism is running deep over the fate of registration provisions.
“The commission should start focussing their efforts on the parliamentary polls, setting aside all other plans including the one for upazila polls in October." added the JP leader.
1 Contrary' to the political leaders1-' -- views. Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain has recently said it should not take much time for the political parties to amend their constitutions.
AL BNP and Jatiya Party- leaders however said for Ramadan it might not be possible to hold national councils in September. That leaves the parties with around a month only.
Then there's the plan for upazila election in October. If the EC announces the schedule for the local polls by mid-September, everyone will get busy with electioneering, they continued.
Besides, they will have to start preparing for the parliamentary polls too since there will be very little time left.
Officials atthe EC Secretariat fear the commission might have to face tremendous difficulties enforcing the amended electoral laws before the general election in December.
They' said the legal provision on mandatory use of voter identity cards in the 1996 election could not be enforced as the EC failed to issue voter ID cards in time.
In 2001 election, it could not
implement all the reforms it sought for time constraints. At that time, registration of (he political parties could not be made mandatory in the face of opposition from the parties.
This time, tirecommission might have to do without enforcing the laws regarding registration of the political parties unless there's any significant development.
Immediately after its inception in February last year, the present EC led by ATM Shamsul Huda began drawing up plans for electoral reforms.
On April 5 that year, it unveiled the reforms proposals. The previous day. it asked the caretaker government to allow indoor politics so it could have talks with the political parties and finalise the proposals.
Originally, the commission had plans to have the electoral reforms in place by August last year. But as tire government did not lift the curbs on indoor politics before September 10, the dialogue with political parties began much later th an planned.
Then there came the issue of BNP factions, dragging the commission into controversy.
The EC could finally round up the dialogue in February this year.
It took two months to finalise the proposals in view of the political parties' opinions, and sent those to the government in May.