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EC in trouble with party registration process

Faces time constraints to complete it ahead of poll schedule announcement

M Abul Kaiam Azad
The Election Commission (EC) seems to hit a bottleneck with a myriad of troubles in the short time ahead of the December 18 parliamentary poll, as it hears this morning public objections to Jamaat's probable registration amid an uncertainty over completion of party registration before the announcement of detailed poll schedule.
The hearing is scheduled to start at 10:30am in the EC Secretariat with representatives of the objectors and Jamaat presenting necessary documents and proofs defending respective positions. The entire commission and its legal experts will also be present.
Although the commission has been saying there is no problem in announcing the detailed poll schedule before completing registration of parliamentary parties,
many believe the EC might find itself in more trouble if any of the rejected parties takes it to court with the poll date closing in by the day.
Moreover, the EC is still embroiled in a legal battle over its recent redemarcation of constituencies, which is likely to drag on for at least another week, if not for longer.
"If a party denied registration
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goes to court challenging the decision, the registration process might be delayed further," observed an EC official adding, since a large number of parties will be denied registration there is a good chance that some of those will challenge the rejections in courts.
And just when the EC could do without any additional hassle, it find itself in a dilemma over registering some other Islamist organisations, especially Islami Oikya Jote (IOD> as despite being an alliance of parties it applied for registration as a single party'.
"IOJ’s application put us in a difficult situation," a commission official toldThe Daily Star adding, the expert committee evaluating the applications decided not to consider any alliance for registration.
Commission officials said either the constitutions of almost all 22 applicant Islamist parties' are contradictory to the country’s constitution. or they failed to fulfill other requirements for registration demanded by the Representation of the People Order (RPO), but the EC 'cannot just reject them outright’.
The matter of 1OJ is entirely different as it applied as a party despite being an alliance of parties, while two of its five components Nezam-e-Islami Party and Islamic Morcha — also applied separately as parties
Falzul Haq Amini is the chairman of both IOJ and Islamic Morcha while Abdul Latif Nezami is the secretary general of both IOJ and Nezam-e-Islami Party.
"We are still assessing the applications of the components of IOJ," the EC official said, hinting that only one of the alliance components might get the registration.
Meanwhile, the commission in an official letter to IOJ asked the Islamist alliance to amend its constitution as it contradicts the principles of the country’s constitution, but no reply has yet come from the alliance.
The EC, however, had invited IOJ to its recent electoral dialogues, saying back then that the alliance had fulfilled the registration crite-
The commission is also finding problems with the applications of Bangladesh Jatiya Party’s (BJP) two factions -- one led by Andaleeb Rahman Partho and known as BJP
(Monju) after his late father Naziur Rahman Monju, while the other faction is led by Abdul Matin - as both are seeking separate registra-
"Since Naziur was elected a parliament member in 2001 with BNP-led alliance ticket and BNP's symbol, his election cannot be considered as his party faction's win. And according to the new electoral law a party must have won at least one seat in the parliament since the country's independence to be eligible for registration." said a member of the five-member expert committee for evaluating the applications.
Both factions of BJP have been asked to appear before the EC at 11:30am today to resolve the matter, he added.
The expert committee already evaluated all 107 applications and found only about 30 as eligible for registration while the rest either exist only on papers or failed to fulfill the criteria for registration set by the amended RPO.
The EC so far decided to registet some 14 major parties including Awami League and BNP, as those parties were found eligible for registration in line with the new electoral law.