Bangladesh News

Demands for barring anti-Liberation War forces from elections, announcement of a specific date for the next parliamentary polls and lifting of the state of emergency dominated the second round electoral reform talks between the Election Commission (EC) and 15 political parties that ended yesterday.

But the EC cannot yet wrap up the dialogue to initiate steps for making the proposals into laws without holding talks with the BNP, which is virtually divided into two factions–both claiming to be the party’s mainstream.

The commission is still waiting for a settlement of the dispute.

Unless the two BNP factions can unite in a week resolving the leadership crisis, the EC will have to wait for a few more days to have a result from the High Court, which will resume the hearing of a case on the matter next Monday.

On November 5 last year, the EC invited the Saifur Rahman-led faction of the party to the first round of the electoral reform dialogue for November 22. This prompted the Khandaker Delwar Hossain-led faction, loyal to the party’s detained Chairperson Khaleda Zia, to challenge the decision in the High Court.

The EC has not been able to hold even the first round of the talks with the BNP because of the legal tangle.

“We will be happy if the BNP is united…We do not want to see factions in political parties,” Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda said during the commission’s talks with a political party yesterday.

Huda hoped the EC would be able to sit with the BNP soon to discuss the electoral reform proposals.

The caretaker government will begin a national dialogue with the political parties after the EC wraps up its dialogue that began on September 12 last year.

Participating in the second round of the electoral reform talks, all other parties have asked the EC not to register Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh as a parliamentary political party and bar anti-liberation forces from polls.

Even the Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ), another Islamist party and a partner of the immediate past BNP-Jamaat led four-party alliance government, said yesterday that they also want trial of the war criminals and the anti-liberation forces.

“We also do not want to see war criminals and anti-liberation forces in the elections,” IOJ chief Fazlul Haque Amini told reporters after the talks at the EC Secretariat conference room yesterday.

But the war criminals must be tried before declaring them disqualified from contesting the polls, he said.

The IOJ also suggested that the EC disqualify apostates and atheists for contesting the elections.

In response, Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain requested the IOJ leader to withdraw the proposal. “We do not expect such words from you. Leave the matter on Allah to decide who is apostate and atheist,” he said.

Refusing to withdraw the proposal, Amini said apostates and atheists have been defined in the holy Quran. “We will keep using these words and you will have to tolerate it,” Amini said.

Later in the afternoon, Liberal Democratic Party President Oli Ahmed urged the EC to ask the caretaker government to prepare the list of war criminals soon to try them.

“The government had prepared a list of Razakars in 1972. The current government can prepare the list of notorious war criminals taking help from that list,” Oli told reporters after the talks.

Veteran freedom fighter and Krishak Sramik Janata League (KSJL) chief Quader Siddiqui also demanded that the anti-liberation forces are barred from polls.

“The demand for disqualifying the anti-liberation forces from being registered with the commission has now become a demand of the nation. Muslim League, Jamaat-e-Islami and Nizam-i-Islam worked against the Liberation War of Bangladesh. Of them, Jamaat was the principal collaborator of the Pakistan occupation forces in looting and killings,” he said. “So, Jamaat cannot be registered as a political party.”

Most political parties opposed the EC move for demarcating the parliamentary constituencies, fearing that the task will make the polls uncertain. They also opposed the EC plan for holding the polls to four city corporations and seven municipalities next April–before the ninth parliamentary elections.

The EC, however, assured the political parties that the tasks would not hinder holding of the parliamentary election by end of this year as per its electoral roadmap.

In response to the political parties’ demand for announcing a specific date for the parliamentary election, the CEC yesterday said it would take the EC a few more days to do so.

Wrapping up the talks, the EC will prepare a comprehensive report summarising the outcomes of the talks and finalising the electoral reform proposals.