Bangladesh News

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda yesterday said the ongoing state of emergency must be relaxed by the end of this year in areas where local government elections are planned from January.

“Our target is to hold a series of elections to local government bodies from January next year. So, not only the ban on indoor politics but the state of emergency will have to be relaxed in the areas where local government elections will be held,” the CEC said at a views exchange meeting with representatives of different television channels and radio stations.

Brimming with confidence about successful implementation of the Election Commission’s (EC) roadmap for holding the polls to local government bodies and the stalled parliamentary election, the CEC said the government extended its full support to the commission’s activities as this government had been formed only to hold the elections.

The CEC’s remark on the state of emergency came at a time when senior leaders of major political parties are demanding lifting of the emergency regime. The emergency was imposed on January 11 suspending outdoor political activities like processions and rallies amid a volatile political situation over holding the stalled January 22 parliamentary election.

In response to the EC’s previous demand, the government had allowed limited indoor politics from September 10 only in the capital, with a set of conditions attached, to facilitate the electoral reform talks between the commission and political parties, which started on September 12.

The poll chief at a meeting with the law adviser on April 4 first asked the government to lift the ban on indoor politics to pave the way for the talks, and kept on asking for a partial if not a complete lifting of the ban until it finally got it.

“We were hoping that indoor politics would be allowed all across the country with the same conditions attached. However, the government did not do so, and it might have valid reasons for it, since it’s an un-elected government,” he added.

At the meeting with the journalists of audio-visual media, the EC sought their cooperation in raising awareness among the people for completing the preparation of the voter list with photographs on schedule. The representatives of the state owned BTV and Radio Bangladesh, and of private satellite television channels and radio stations assured the commission of their assistance.

The two other election commissioners — Muhammed Sohul Hussain and Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain, EC Secretary Humayun Kabir, and other senior officials were present at the meeting held in the EC Secretariat’s conference room.

The EC will sit today with representatives of different private mobile phone service operators, seeking their assistance in publicity for voter listing.

ELECTORAL RAODMAP

The EC on July 15 announced its comprehensive plan for holding the next election, stipulating that a voter list with photographs will be ready by October 2008 and the parliamentary poll will definitely be held by December of that year. Besides, due polls to different local government bodies are also supposed to be held from January 2008.

“Doubts over the implementation of the roadmap exist in different quarters. Even the international community also expressed their doubts regarding the commission’s ability to implement the roadmap successfully, as there is no single instance in the world of preparing a voter list with photographs enlisting 80 million to 90 million voters in only 18 months,” the CEC said yesterday.

“But we are confident that we will be able to do it on time as we have already completed 10 percent of the task. The government has extended its sincere cooperation and we have deployed trained manpower of the army,” he added.

“So, there is no reason for failing to implement the roadmap. It will be a disaster if the roadmap fails,” he said.

He went on saying that the EC charted the roadmap for preparing the voter list and deployed the manpower for it as it did, by taking advantage of the state of emergency. “Some problems might have cropped up if the process had begun during a regime of a partisan government.”

He also said the EC will begin the field level task of preparing the voter list across the country at full throttle in November this year. He lauded the performance of the Bangladesh Army in bearing the load of the field level task.

JAMAAT’S REGISTRATION
Referring to the demands of political parties for not allowing Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh to register with the EC as a contestant in elections, and for cancellation of its election symbol — scale, the CEC said the commission will consider the demand when the time for registering political parties comes.

“Now, we are just discussing the proposals for electoral reforms. The time for registering the parties has yet to come,” he added.

According to the EC’s electoral roadmap, the entire task of implementing the electoral reforms will be completed by February next year, following which the eligible political parties will start applying to the EC for registrations, which will be completed by June.

Two of the three political parties, that already had their talks with the EC since September 12, strongly urged the commission not to allow Jamaat-e-Islami to contest in elections, terming the Islamist theocratic party an anti-liberation force. Awami League-led 14-party coalition is also likely to raise the same demand during its talk with the EC.

REFORM TALKS
Referring to the ongoing talks with political parties on electoral reforms, the CEC said the parties did not even want to hear about registration before. “But now they [the parties] want to come under a discipline. The overall situation is now conducive to bringing reforms.”

About the ongoing controversy over the leadership of BNP, the CEC said both factions of the party want to get the EC’s invitation for sitting in dialogues. “But we can’t invite both of them. We hope they will settle the dispute within the party before its turn for the talk comes,” he said.

CEC Huda reiterated that BNP is scheduled to sit with the commission for the talk on November 22, and the EC hopes that the factions will settle the dispute among themselves by that time.