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Download PDF Following an assurance from the caretaker government that the ban on indoor politics will be lifted, the Election Commission (EC) yesterday announced that it will kick off dialogues with political parties on September 12 which will continue till the end of November.
The EC Secretariat is scheduled to start sending invitations and copies of draft proposals for electoral reforms to 15 selected political parties today, so they can discuss the proposals in their party forums before going to the talks.
Announcing the schedule for holding the talks with the parties, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda said the EC firmly believes that the ban on indoor politics will be relaxed before the dialogues start to create an environment conducive to the talks on electoral reforms.
“The Election Commission is a constitutional body. The government must accept our demand and must assist us according to the constitution,” Huda said at a news briefing in the EC Secretariat responding to a number of questions on whether the ban on indoor politics will be lifted for the talks.
“We want to have discussions with the parties. The government must create a pro-dialogue environment. It depends on the government whether that [the opportunity] will be conditional or not,” said CEC Huda, accompanied by the other two election commissioners — Md Sohul Hossain and Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain.
Referring to his last Tuesday’s meeting with Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, the CEC said he did not get any indication that might suggest that the ban on indoor politics will not be lifted.
Major political parties earlier announced that they will not sit with the EC to discuss the draft proposals for electoral reforms until the ban on indoor politics is lifted, allowing them to discuss the proposals in their party forums.
Amid such a situation, the EC at a meeting on Monday finalised the schedule for the talks selecting 15 political parties for invitations on the basis of three criteria.
To be eligible for an invitation to the talks a political party must have secured at least one parliamentary seat in any general election since Bangladesh’s independence, or it must have secured at least 2 percent of cast votes in any general election since the independence, or it must have committees in 32 districts and in all upazila headquarters under those districts with a minimum of 1,000 members in each district unit and 2,000 members in each upazila unit.
“Based on the information the EC Secretariat has, we selected 15 political parties for the talks. If any party’s name has been dropped, it may apply to us,” CEC Huda said.
If a political party fails to meet any of the first two criteria, it will have to apply to the EC showing that it meets the third criterion.
“We will verify the information and if satisfied we will invite the political party to sit with us. But we are not interested in sitting with 150 political parties that exist in the country,” CEC Huda said.
The dialogues will be kicked off on September 12 with the EC and Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini-led Islami Oikya Jote sitting for a talk, and the series will end with a talk between the commission and the Samayabadi Dal of Bangladesh on November 29.
According to the dialogue schedule prepared in Bangla alphabetical order, the EC will sit with Bangladesh Awami League on November 4, and with Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on November 22.
The schedules for talks with other parties are, September 16 for Krishak Sramik Janata League, September 20 for Ganotantrik Dal, September 27 for Jatiya Party (Ershad), October 4 for Jatiya Party (Manju), October 9 for Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Inu), October 22 for Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Rab), October 25 for Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, October 28 for National Awami Party (Mozaffar), November 11 for the Workers Party of Bangladesh, November15 for Bangladesh Jatiya Party (Naziur), and November 25 for the Communist Party of Bangladesh.
The CEC said the EC Secretariat will start sending the invitations and drafts of the electoral reform proposals today to the secretaries general or general secretaries of the selected parties and all the invitations will reach the parties within a week.
He said the agenda of the dialogues will focus on the draft proposals for amending the Representation of the People Order 1972, Political Party Registration Act 2001, and the Election Codes of Conduct 1996.
Besides, discussions on a proposal for introducing transparent ballot boxes might also be held.
The CEC, who earlier on April 4 at a meeting with the law adviser had asked the government to lift the ban on indoor politics allowing the EC to hold talks with the parties, yesterday said the commission announced the schedule for the talks following a consultation with the government.
Asked what if the ban is neither lifted nor relaxed, the CEC said the EC will inform the government of its steps and the government certainly will take measures to help implement the commission’s plans.
“Our roadmap was announced after showing it to the government and it had assured us of its support,” he said.
The EC on July 15 announced a complete roadmap to the next parliamentary election stipulating a timeframe, according to which talks with the political parties for finalising the plan for electoral reforms is supposed to be held between September and November this year.
On April 5, the commission had disclosed a set of proposals for electoral reforms and announced its plan for holding talks with the parties, but it could not proceed with it due to the ban on indoor politics.
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