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Time running out for 2 vital poll tasks

HC stay on re-demarcation of constituencies throws the spanner

Shakhawat Liton
The Election Commission (EC) finds itself in a tight corner in gearing up for the December 18 poll as two of its vital tasks - preparing the constituency wise electoral rolls and finalising the list of polling stations -- remain suspended because of a High Court (HC) stay on recent re-demarcation of the constituencies.
The stay order will expire on November 6 while the EC must announce the detailed poll schedule in early November in order to allow a required gap of 42 to 45 days between the polling date and the date of announcing the detailed schedule.
And constituency wise voter
lists are required before announcing the detailed poll schedule.
EC officials said at least a week will be needed to have the constituency wise voter lists ready, which must be available at the offices of returning officers for prospective candidates, as soon as the detailed poll schedule is announced.
Prospective candidates are also not being able to start their election preparations with the uncertainty about the constituencies still dogging the electoral process.
Many of them already communicated with the EC to know about the fate of the recent redemarcation, the EC officials said.
Following a writ petition filed by former BNP lawmaker Abdul Mannan challenging the EC’s July
10 gazette notification which finalised the re-demarcation of 300 parliamentary constituencies, the HC on August 7 stayed the effectiveness of the notification for three months.
It also issued a ruling on the government and the EC to show cause in two weeks as to why the gazette notification should not be declared unconstitutional and illegal.
Worried by the tight spot it found itself in due to the HC stay order, the EC scrambled to get the matter resolved before the Supreme Court (SC) went into vacation, but it failed.
Now the EC is not being able to predict a tentative timeframe for the adjudication of the writ petition against its re-demarcation of the constituencies.
Meanwhile, pro-BNP lawyers practicing in the SC are preparing to initiate steps to win the legal battle against the EC, upon directives from the party that vehemently opposes the recent redemarcation.
Counsels of both sides are supposed to appear before a vacation bench of the HC Division of Supreme Court (SC) today for scheduling a hearing, while the counsels of tire petitioner are not willing to get the matter heard by the vacation bench.
"The Election Commission is eager to get the mater heard to resolve the only remaining legal obstacle to holding the parliamentary poll," EC's counsel Shadeen Malik told The Daily Star yesterday.
But, Barrister Rafiqul Islam Mia, a counsel of the petitioner, said the matter should not be heard by a vacation bench.
"It's an important national issue which should be heard by a regular bench after tire Supreme Court comes back from vacation,"
Rafiqul told The Daily Star adding, "We will convey our opinion to the court."
Asked whether they will appear before the HC vacation bench today for scheduling the hearing, Rafiqul said they were not even aware when and where they are expected to appear. He said the counsel of the EC did not inform them about the details.
Shahdeen Malik however said he did send the necessary documents about today's appearance before the court to the petitioner's legal team.
"We hope that the petitioner will cooperate in getting the matter heard without any delay,''Malik said.
Legal experts observed that the counsels of the petitioner are not bound to participate in a hearing before the vacation bench of HC.
The Supreme Court will return from vacation on October 12.
The legal experts and EC officials said the commission might face difficulties in proceeding with its plans if the issue is not resolved soon, as the preparatory work for the December 18 national election, which should have already been in full swing, is rather gigantic.
Referring to the unwillingness
of the counsels of the petitioner to participate in the hearing before the vacation bench, the legal experts said if the matter is not adjudicated till after October 12, the EC might end up facing a severe time crunch.
Besides, any party of the case will also have the option of filing appeals against whatever decision the HC takes, which will end up killing more time, the experts added.
The day the HC stayed the EC’s gazette notification, Attorney General Salauddin Ahmed said the order might end up hampering the preparations for the upcoming parliamentary poll.
Another gazette notification on parliamentary constituencies had been published earlier in 2006 in a bid to hold the ninth parliamentary poll on January 22,2007.
But the poll could not be held due to violent political turmoil in the country that led to the declaration of the ongoing state of emergency.
On July 10 this year, the EC published a new gazette notification re-demarcating the parliamentary constituencies, repealing the previous delimitation.