EC not upset with political parties

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Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda yesterday said the Election Commission (EC) is not frustrated with the political parties and it is to them that the EC owes its existence.

“We are not frustrated with the political parties at all…The political parties are our main clients and we need not be here if the parties do not exist,” Huda said when his attention was drawn to the present situation where only the political parties and politicians are blamed for all wrong and giving a frustrating impression of the parties.

Huda was speaking at the electoral reforms talks between the EC and the Jatiya Party (JP) led by Anwar Hossain Manju.

“Many people have disliked what we have said and they have told us that the people are our main clients. Yes, in a sense our main clients are the people and we communicate with them through the political parties,” Huda said.

In defence of the proposals for electoral reforms including mandatory provision for political parties’ registration with the EC, he said, “We want to introduce a healthy culture of politics by holding a free and fair election.”

JP Secretary General Sheikh Shahidul Islam said the people have become frustrated with the activities of the political parties and the politicians and they have been put in the dock.

“But politicians have even sacrificed their lives in the greater interests of the nation in the past,” Shahidul Islam, who led the JP-Manju delegation, said.

The JP placed a 14-point recommendation before the EC and asked it to declare terrorists and war criminals ineligible for the polls and being registered as voters.

In response to this proposal, Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain said, “We are agreed in principle on what you said. But they [war criminals and terrorists] will have to be identified by the court first.”

At this stage the CEC inquired if anybody was convicted of war crimes. The JP secretary general informed the CEC that a number of criminals were punished.

In an oblique reference to Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, the JP leaders said the party is the local chapter of an international political party and it cannot get registered with the EC.

The JP delegation supported the proposal for making registration of political parties mandatory but suggested making a different law on it rather than incorporating it in the Representation of People Order (RPO).

On introducing transparent ballot boxes in the next parliamentary elections, the JP leaders said they do not bother whether the ballot boxes are transparent or traditional. “But the Election Commission should introduce transparent ballot box if a major political party demands it, otherwise the party may question the election in case it is defeated,” Shahidul said.

The CEC informed the JP leaders that if a major political party demands introduction of transparent ballot box in the next parliamentary polls, the commission will go for it despite wastage of $2-3 million.

“Transparent ballot boxes are not suitable for our country,” Huda said, explaining the weakness of the boxes. “But we will have to take a decision soon in this regard as it will take at least 10 months to collect the boxes if we decide to introduce them,” he added.

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