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EC unable to enforce poll code of conduct

Non-registration of political parties main reason, says CEC

Shakhawat Litton
The new code of conduct for parliamentary polls officially took effect on September 18, but Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda, yesterday said the Election Commission (EC) is unable to enforce the rules mainly due to non-registration of the political parties.
The CEC identified this as a “major problem” in enforcing the code of conduct, which was made for the registered political parties and candidates contesting the polls.
As part of the sweeping electoral reform initiatives, EC has promulgated the code of conduct with stringent provisions including imposing restrictions on electioneering until three weeks before the start of balloting.
Now the political parties and prospective candidates are not
entitled to electioneering before November 27.
But CEC Huda yesterday said: "The new code of conduct will be enforced with announcement of the schedule for the parliamentary polls."
"Besides, we don't know who are the prospective candidates for the December 18 parliamentary polls," Huda told Ilie Daily Star over phone.
The EC has already announced that the election schedule for the December 18 national ballots will be declared in first week of November.
This means the political parties and prospective candidates will not have to wait for November 27 to launch campaigns for electioneering unless the emergency power rules (EPR) prohibit those activities. Earlier in April last year, EC unveiled the proposed code of conduct with a set of stringent proposals aimed at reducing election expenditures and encouraging honest candidates.
It also held talks witit the political parties twice seeking their opinions on the proposals. None of the political parties then opposed the proposed code of conduct.
The proposed code was supposed to be finalised in February this year according to the electoral roadmap which also stipulated that registration of parties will be completed in June
But EC yesterday got gazette notification of the code of conduct with retrospective effect of September 18 and it will remain effective until publication of election results in official gazette.
In efforts to free the polls from influence of black money, EC had planned to enforce the code of conduct long before announcement of the polls schedule.
The codes of conduct in the previous parliamentary elections took effect with the announcement of election schedules.
Registration of political parties
before the national polls still remains uncertain as BNP and its allies are opposing it for being qualified to contest the upcoming polls.
"The code of conduct took effect from September 18 accord ing to the gazette notification. But we cannot ask political parties to abide by the rules since none of the parties has yet got registered," Election Commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain told The Daily Star.
He said this time it would be difficult to implement the code of conduct. "But it can be enforced properly from the next polls," he asserted.
The EC still faces uncertainty over registration of political parties before the December 18 polls, sources in EC say.
If BNP and its key allies, Jamaat-c-Islami and Islami Oikya Jotc don't agree eventually with the registration, EC might have to face tremendous difficulties ahead of the polls.
If the registration is not completed, EC will have to amend the code of conduct, repealing the provision for registered political parties.