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AL, BNP, JP fail to submit audit reports

Seek more time from EC

Staff Correspondent
The Awami League, BNP and Jatiya Party, the three major political parties of the country, have sought more time from the Election Commission for submitting the audit reports of their annual income and expenditure of last year after failing to do so in seven months.
All the registered parties have to submit theor annual audit reports certified by a registered chartered accountant firm within July 31 of the following year, according to the Political Parties Registration Rule, 2008.
As the deadline expired yesterday, the ruling AL sought time till September 1, Jatiya Party till August 30, and BNP till August 14.
The AL in a letter signed by its general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam said it could not prepare the report by July 31 but it will submit it by September 1, AL assistant secretary ABM Reazul Kabir Kawsar told The Daily Star.
In separate letters, the BNP and JP on July 24 and July 27 applied for extending the deadlines.
Aiming to remind the parties of the registration rules, the EC on June 16 sent letters to all the 40 political parties asking them to submit the audit reports of 2013
by July 31 this year.
Of the 40, around a dozen political parties, including the three, have failed to prepare reports, despite getting seven months from January.
"We've received the audit reports of around 28 political parties. The rest of the parties have sought time," Rowshan Ara, senior assistant secretary to the EC Secretariat, told The Daily Star.
Talking about the parties' application to extend deadlines, EC's Acting Secretary Sirazul Islam said, "No clear explanations are available in existing laws about it. But we have found some precedents of extending timeframes in past."
Now, the election commissioners will take the final decision on this matter, he said.
The registration of a party will be cancelled if it fails to submit the audit report for three consecutive years, according to the Representation of People Order (RPO).
Meanwhile, the EC now does not consider the Jamaat a registered political party because the High Court on August 1 last year declared its registration illegal. An appeal against the verdict remains pending with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.