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Small parties at stake

EC wants to cancel registration over poor poll performance

Shakhawat Liton
Registration of many political parties might be cancelled because of their poor polls performance as the Election Commission (EC) has drafted a proposal to prevent such parties from contesting parliamentary elections.
The proposal says registration of a political party will be cancelled if it fails to obtain five percent of total votes cast in parliamentary constituencies where it fields candidates, EC officials said.
Citing the performance of smaller parties in the last pai^iamentary election, they said once the proposal is included in the Representation of the People Order (RPO), a good number of them will lose registration if they fail have better results in the next polls.
Among the 38 parties that contested the last parliamentary election, none of the 25 smaller ones fielding 716 candidates was able to win any seat. Most of their candidates lost security deposits as they failed to obtain one-eighth percent of votes cast in their respective constituencies.
“A political party must obtain a certain
percentage of votes in parliamentary election to remain a registered political party. So, we want inclusion of the new provision in the RPO," Election Commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain told The Daily Star yesterday.
The EC will send a set of proposals including this one to the government for bringing electoral reforms.
Sohul mentioned that participation of a large number of parties including those in name only makes polls management and other jobs in the run-up to election difficult for polls officials.
Political parties have mushroomed since the independence, raising their number to 96 in 2001 election from 14 in the first general election in 1973.
Registration of parties was made mandatory for contesting parliamentary election to keep the parties only in name away from the polls.
On meeting certain criteria, 39 political parties got registered with the EC before the ninth parliamentary election last year and 38 fielded candidates.
SEE PAGE 15 COL 3 FROM PAGE 16
Despite poor performance in the election, all the registered parties are entitled to get donations, a set of electoral roll in a CD and broadcast facilities in the state-owned electronic media during general election.
As per the RPO, the EC will consult the major political parities as well as the smaller ones election-related matters, especially measures for holding the polls fairly and problems in doingthe job.
In all the previous elections, performance of smaller parties was almost the same.