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Six more months for party charters

Cabinet okays proposal to amend RPO

Staff Correspondent
The political parties that failed to submit to the Election > Commission (EC) their amended constitutions ratified by national councils, will get six more months to do so in order to be registered as parliamentary parties.
A cabinet meeting y esterday approved a proposal for amend -ing the Representation of the People Order (RPO) making way for extending the submission deadline.
Following a request from the EC. the law. justice and parliamentary’ affairs ministry suggested that the cabinet gives the political parties one more year, but Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina approved six months.
The previous deadline was July 24 this year, which will be extended till January 25,2010.
Meeting sources said Hasina approved the proposal despite her cabinet colleagues’ opposition to the extension.
"Many of us told the prime minister that BNP does not care about the electoral law’s and not serious about amending its constitution. But she was adamant to give more time," a cabinet minister toldThe Daily Star after the meeting.
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1 Ie said BNP in its application to the EC for an extension of the deadline did not mention any reason for seeking the extra time, and also did not submit an account of its election expenditures. Those were the arguments for not allowing more time," he added.
"We should give the parties more time to ratify their amended constitutions for submission, for the sake of democratic practice in the country;" the cabinet minister quoted Hasina as saying. The premier was even ready to extend the deadline for a year, headded.
Most of the political parties failed to submit their ratified amended constitutions to the EC by the previous deadline, prompting the commission to request the law ministry to take steps to amend the RPO so the parties may get more time for completing the process of submission.
Ten political parties, including the main opposition BNR out of 39 registered parties submitted written applications to the EC requesting deadline extension.
According to electoral laws, political parties seeking registration with the EC as parliamentary parties are required to amend their constitutions in line with the RPO, get them ratified by their national councils. and submit the final version of the party'constitutions within six months of the first sitting of the parliament.
Ilie registration of a parliamentary' party is supposed to be postponed, if it fails to submit (he consti(ution within the deadline.
The political parties had submitted their provisionally amended constitutions to the EC for registration before the recent national polls, with promises to submit council ratified permanent constitutions within the stipulated time, but most of them failed to keep their promises. A state minister, who attended the cabinet meeting yesterday, said Hasina asked die law ministry to incorporate in the proposal for RPO amendment the consequences of not filing party constitutions by the new deadline.
Asked about the consequences, press secretary to the premier, Abul Kalam Azad, told reporters after the meeting that everything will be specified in the law.
He said an ordinance proposing amendments to the RPO will be placed in the next cabinet meeting for approval.
Ruling Awami League and its key ally Jatiya Party already handed in their amended constitutions ratified by their national councils, to the EC within the previous deadline.
Azad said the cabinet yesterday also approved proposals for the Ethnic Communities' Cultural Institutions Act 2009, and Bangladesh National Scientific and Technical Documentation Centre (Bansdoc) Act 2009.