Bangladesh News

Some political parties including Awami League (AL) and BNP seem to have overlooked the Election Commission’s (EC) constitutional jurisdiction and legal obligation to re-demarcate parliamentary constituencies, as they have been criticising the commission for its recent move to comply with the law.

According to the constitution, re-demarcating the parliamentary constituencies is one of the mandatory tasks of the EC, while according to the Delimitation of Constituencies Ordinance 1976, the commission must do the job following publication of each census report.

But, since the publication of gazette notification re-demarcating 133 out of the 300 parliamentary constituencies on Tuesday, political parties have been rejecting outright the draft list of re-demarcated constituencies, demanding withdrawal of the gazette.

On Friday following an AL presidium meeting, the party’s Acting General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam said his party disapproves of the EC’s move to re-demarcate the parliamentary constituencies, claiming the commission does not have the jurisdiction to do that.

“According to the constitution, the Election Commission is entrusted with the job of holding parliamentary elections only. It can’t get involved in policy matters like re-demarcation of constituencies. We totally reject the EC’s move,” Ashraful told journalists at a news briefing after the meeting.

Similarly, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, the de facto leader of pro-Khaleda faction of BNP also detained BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia appointed secretary general of the party, yesterday termed EC’s move illegal.

“Only the parliament can decide whether the numbers of parliamentary seats will be increased or decreased [in a district],” Delwar claimed.

Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid on Sunday in a statement demanded withdrawal of the EC’s gazette notification publishing a draft list of re-demarcated constituencies.

Mojahid claimed, the EC took the decision ignoring public opinion, while urging the commission to hold the general election with the existing demarcation of the 300 parliamentary constituencies in place.

Some other political parties have also been blasting the EC for its move to redraw the parliamentary boundaries before the much anticipated ninth parliamentary election, which has been stalling for over a year now.

The EC however is determined to do the job according to the constitution and the relevant law, and it has already invited appeals from anybody who has grievances against the commission’s decision.

Till yesterday, nobody has however filed any appeal against the EC’s decision, although some people contacted some senior officials of the EC Secretariat to know about the procedure for filing appeals.

“We will go ahead with our plan for redrawing the parliamentary boundaries,” Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain told reporters yesterday.

“I don’t have any reaction,” the election commissioner said when his attention was drawn to the political parties’ demand for scraping the plan for redrawing the parliamentary boundaries.

The EC, which is duty bound to re-demarcate the parliamentary constituencies following publication of each census reports according to the current law, is not however worried about any negative consequence of the re-demarcation, since the constituency demarcation law provides it with the legal protection required.

“The validity of the delimitation or formation of any constituency, or of any proceedings taken or anything done by or under the authority of the commission, under this ordinance shall not be called in question in or before any court or other authority,” says the Delimitation of Constituencies Ordinance 1976, while the constitution says, “The validity of any law relating to the delimitation of constituencies, or the allotment of seats to such constituencies, made or purporting to be made under article 124, shall not be called in question in any court.”

THE CONSTITUTION SAYS
On the EC’s functions, the constitution says, “The superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of the electoral rolls for elections to the office of president and to parliament, and the conduct of such elections, shall vest in the Election Commission which shall, in accordance with this Constitution and any other law (a) hold elections to the office of president (b) hold elections of members of parliament (c) delimit the constituencies for the purpose of elections to parliament, and (d) prepare electoral rolls for the purpose of elections to the office of president and to parliament.”

“The Election Commission shall perform such functions, in addition to those specified in the foregoing clauses, as may be prescribed by this constitution or by any other law,” the constitution continues.

THE LAW
About re-demarcation of constituencies, the Delimitation of Constituencies Ordinance 1976 says, “The territorial constituencies shall be delimited afresh upon the completion of each census, for the purpose of general election to parliament to be held following such census and unless otherwise directed by the commission, for reasons to be recorded in writing, before each general election to parliament.”

It goes on to say, “The constituencies shall be so delimited, having regard to administrative convenience, that each constituency is a compact area, and in doing so due regard shall be had, as far as practicable, to the distribution of population as given in the latest census report.”

THE RATIONALE
The latest census was done in 2001, but the immediate past BNP-led government did not publish the report during its five-year tenure. So, the erstwhile EC also did not have to initiate any step to re-demarcate the parliamentary constituencies.

The current military backed caretaker government published the census report of 2001 in the middle of last year, making it obligatory for the current EC to re-demarcate the constituencies before the upcoming election.

In the electoral roadmap announced by the EC on July 15 last year, the commission stipulated re-demarcation of the constituencies to bring balance among the numbers of voters in those.

The political parties at that time also did not oppose the EC’s plan, but they changed their position when the commission began the re-demarcation work this year.

The last time the EC carried out a major re-demarcation of the constituencies was in 1984. Then in 1995, it brought some minor changes to the electoral boundaries.

After 24 long years, a new EC moved to re-demarcate the constituencies on a large scale again, ignoring objections of major political parties.

Due to the long gap, population sizes in constituencies became quite lopsided.

According to the voter list prepared in 2001, back then 17 constituencies had voters numbering below two lakh each, six had over six lakh each, seven had between five and six lakh each, while 19 constituencies had somewhere between four and five lakh voters each.

The rest of the constituencies were more or less of medium-size in terms of the numbers of voters.

Interestingly, the ceiling on election expenditure for all constituencies however was the same, regardless of numbers of voters in them.

Once the latest re-demarcation is finalised, there will be no major inconsistency among the numbers of voters in the constituencies.

According to the announced electoral roadmap, the finalised list of re-demarcated constituencies will be published through a gazette notification by the end of June, and the election will be held before the year end.