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Download PDF The Election Commission (EC) should consist of three election commissioners, one of them a woman, appointed by parliament, says a draft law on the formation of the commission.
“It is very important who will be the election commissioners and how they will be appointed. So, we have prepared a draft law according to which there will be three election commissioners including a woman,” Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda yesterday said.
The three commissioners also include the CEC.
Defending the mandatory appointment of a woman election commissioner for the first time in EC history, he said, “We want to promote women…Why won’t there be a woman in the three-member commission?”
The EC wants to empower parliament, instead of the executive, to appoint the election commissioners to avoid controversy and strengthen itself.
However, the CEC did not specify the parliamentary procedure for the task. But he appreciated a proposal of Jatiya Party Acting Chairman Anisul Islam Mahmud for holding open parliamentary hearing of the candidates for the EC posts.
During Jatiya Party’s electoral reform talks with the EC, Anisul also proposed that a parliamentary body will finalise a panel, which will be sent to the president for the appointment of the election commissioners.
Describing the procedure as “good” and “transparent”, Shamsul Huda said, “At an open hearing candidates with weakness themselves will ask not to propose their names as many things about them may come out during such hearing. This way honest people will be identified.”
The CEC also argued that the constitution clearly states that the appointment to each constitutional body is subject to law. It also says how the appointments will be made.
“But none of the chief executives [of the past governments] followed it because in that case their hands would be tied and they would not be able to appoint persons of their choice,” the CEC said.
Once the draft is finalised, the EC will send it to the government to make it a law.
At present there is no law specifying the qualifications or disqualifications for being an election commissioner and there is also no specification on the number of the commissioners.
“There shall be an Election Commission for Bangladesh consisting of a Chief Election Commissioner and such number of other Election Commissioners, if any as the President may from time to time direct, and the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (if any), subject to the provisions of any law made in that behalf, be made by the President,” says article 118 of the constitution.
In the absence of a law, the president appoints election commissioners on the advice of the prime minister.
The past appointments triggered widespread controversy.
The immediate past EC led by Justice MA Aziz was mired in political controversy, giving rise to political turmoil over holding the ninth parliamentary elections. Finally, the president on January 11 cancelled the January 22 parliamentary polls and declared the state of emergency.
UNB adds: A 15-member delegation of Jatiya Party (JP-Ershad), led by its Acting Chairman barrister Anisul Islam Mahmud, sat with the EC to discuss draft reform proposals on electoral laws.
The delegation also proposed to form a special parliamentary committee to process the appointments to all the constitutional posts, including the Election Commission.
“A parliamentary committee should be formed to appoint all members of the Election Commission. The committee will place a panel of names before the parliament and there will be an open hearing on the names,” Mahmud said during the discussion.
Quoting article 38 of the constitution and article 20 of the Special Powers Act (SPA), the Jatiya Party acting chairman said these two laws prevent the floating of any religion-based political party.
About the red-hot issue of banning the ‘war criminals’ and anti-liberation elements from contesting elections, Mahmud said, “There are war criminals in our country and unfortunately, they were not tried although it was done in every country.
“They (war criminals) should be tried… Those who will be convicted should not be allowed to contest the elections,” he told reporters coming out of the dialogue.
They also proposed that political parties, which will be found connected with religious extremism as well as terrorism, should be debarred from getting registration and contesting elections.
The Jatiya Party delegation agreed with most of the EC proposals on electoral reforms, including banning the political parties’ student and other fronts as well as foreign units, using the traditional ballot box instead of transparent one in the elections and not allowing the candidates to contest in more than three constituencies.
But, the delegation stood against the proposal of EC’s having authority like drawing “contempt of court” proceedings, option of “no vote” in the elections, depositing Tk 5 lakh for each constituency if they want to participate in elections in more than one constituency.
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