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Make law on forming EC

SHUJAN demands for averting legality doubts

Staff Correspondent
The government should enact a law delineating the Election Commission's (EC) formation process, along with qualifications commissioners must have and their responsibilities, to avert questions over its legality and rebuild public confidence in it, demanded SHUJAN yesterday.
One guideline should be on the formation of a search committee, something the president does as per the constitution, which would recommend persons for appointment as the commissioners, including the chief one, added the platform for good governance.
Shushashoner Jannoy Nagorik (SHUJAN) proposed making the committee with five persons - a senior Appellate Division justice at the helm and one representative each from the Awami League (AL) and BNP-led alliances, civil society and media.
The statements came at a roundtable, "Election Commission Reformation and Citizens' Thoughts", SHUJAN organised in the capital's Jatiya Press Club.
A qualified and neutral EC is required along with cooperation from political parties and other stakeholders like the judiciary, law enforcers and media for holding free and fair elections, states a statement.
Reading it out, SHUJAN Secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar said the constitutional obligation over formulating the law has never been followed.
Ensuring participation of political parties is essential for the EC's formation and holding of elections along with making both credible, said former chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda.
He termed BNP's boycott of the January 5, 2014 national election "a historically wrong decision". Eminent columnist Syed Abul Maksud said the formation process and image of the commissioners should be able to reinstate public trust on the EC. The present EC's tenure expires in February and a new one would oversee the 2019 national election.
The authorities should keep in mind that formation of a new EC without the law being formulated first might be challenged at court, said noted jurist Dr Shahdeen Malik.
Any election under a partisan government may make it possible for the party in power to achieve a two-thirds majority, he added.
Former Dhaka University (DU) vice chancellor Prof Emaz Uddin Ahmed urged the prime minister to create a congenial atmosphere for a national election by holding dialogues with political parties.
SHUJAN President M Hafiz Uddin Khan
chaired the function while former election commissioner Sakhawat Hussain, former cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder, eminent rights activist Hameeda Hossain and law professor Asif Nazrul of DU also spoke.
Tension is expected to rise in the country's politics with the AL-led alliance wanting the president-formed search committee while the BNP-led 20-party alliance one following dialogues with all stakeholders.
The current EC, led by Kazi Rakib Uddin Ahmad, drew a lot of flak over the way it held polls during its four-year tenure.
The 2014 general election was boycotted by the BNP-led alliance and the city corporation, municipality, and upazila parishad elections were marred by violence and irregularities.