Bangladesh News

Parliamentary political parties will soon have to start disclosing the sources of their annual incomes and submit expenditure reports to the Election Commission (EC).
The EC has prepared a set of electoral reform proposals that includes this provision to ensure transparency and democracy within parliamentary parties, sources said adding that the provision also stipulates that the parties’ accounts will have to be audited every year

Every parliamentary party will have to be registered with the EC giving an undertaking that it will follow the party constitution. An unregistered political party will not be allowed to contest in parliamentary elections, sources said quoting from the draft proposal which will be sent to the government soon.

The registration of a political party will be cancelled if it fails to follow the rules, sources said.

Once the electoral reforms are implemented through promulgation of an ordinance by the president, parliamentary parties including Awami League, BNP, Jatiya Party and Jamaat-e-Islami will have to be registered and will be forced to disclose the sources of their incomes and report their expenditures to the EC.

The EC believes total absence of any regulation allows political parties to use their influence unrestrictedly in raising funds and to indulge in using the funds in any manner they deem fit, sources close to the EC said explaining the commission’s move.

Affluent persons and business firms contribute large sums of money to political parties hoping that if elected the parties will squarely return such favours, the sources added.

Meanwhile the EC plans to ask the government to prepare national identification cards dropping the idea of voter ID cards.

The EC now believes that the government is actively considering the preparation of multipurpose national ID cards, the sources said.

“The election commission will send a proposal to the government in this regard,” said a source close to the EC.

The EC yesterday at a meeting with Bangladesh Human Rights Commission (BHRC) also disclosed the plan.

“The Election Commission informed us that it is giving importance to the idea of national ID cards,” former chief election commissioner KM Sadek, who led the delegation of BHRC, told reporters after the meeting.

The former CEC said they placed a set of recommendations for a free and fair election.