EC to form groups to check malpractice

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The Election Commission (EC) plans to form an all-party working group in each district comprising representatives of registered political parties in an effort to check ‘misdemeanour or malpractice’ of observers in the coming parliamentary elections.

In view of bitter experience in dealing with large number of polls observers in the past, the EC has drafted a code of conduct and strict guidelines for appointment and deployment of election observers, and plans formation of the working group, sources in the EC said.

“The group shall be entrusted with two specifics tasks– screening the background of persons nominated by the (observer) organisations for deployment in particular polling stations in a district and watch the conduct of the observers during the period of their assignment, and report any misdemeanour or malpractice,” says the draft.

The district election officer will be convenor of the group, and he will convene its meetings and keep minutes.

“Meetings shall be presided over by the representatives of the parties who shall take their turn in the order in which their parties’ names appear in Bangla alphabets,” says the draft proposal.

Once the draft guidelines are finalised, local leaders of Awami League, BNP, Jatiya Party and any other parties getting registered with the EC will be made members of the district-working group to monitor the activities of election observers.

Besides, the EC may enter into agreement with one or more polls observer organisations for coordinating the work of observers.

The organisations intending to deploy polls observers will have to apply to the EC through the observer-coordinating organisation for accreditation. The coordinating body will scrutinise all applications received by it and send those to the EC with its comments. The EC will then decide if an organisation will be accredited by it as polls observers, sources said referring to the draft guidelines.

“The coordinating organisation shall be entrusted with the tasks of screening of the personnel of the accredited organisations in cooperation with the district level all-party working group, and keeping a constant vigil on the activities and discipline of the observers ” a source said quoting the draft.

The EC will revoke accreditation of an observer organisation in case of failure to comply with lawful instructions or directives issued by it or on behalf of it.

In past, the EC allowed organisations to engage observers in parliamentary elections without screening their neutrality and capability to do the job. Many of them were allegedly partisan and worked for particular political parties, triggering controversy.

This time it has initiated the process of sweeping reforms in the election observation system to aver recurrence of the previous incidents, a source noted.

Meanwhile, the EC will hold a meeting on May 8 to seek opinion of various diplomatic missions, development partners and local non-government organisations, which usually deploy election observers.

The EC Secretariat has sent invitation to the chiefs of US embassy, British high commission, European Commission, Japan embassy, Canadian high commission, UNDP, DFID, USAID, Asia Foundation, NDI, IRRI, Election Working Group, BROTEE, Human Rights Commission, Bangladesh Human Rights Enforcement Sangstha and Nari Progoti Sangstha to send their representatives to the meeting.

On the importance of election observation, the EC says the presence of election observers create voters’ confidence in the integrity of the process. “Election observation helps to deter or expose violence or intimidation as well as cheating or manipulation of vote or electoral results. Of all, certification of an election as free and fair by the observer groups enhances voter confidence and encourage acceptance of results by all political parties,” the EC says in the draft guidelines.

The existing election laws say the EC or the returning officers can consider election observation reports along with other findings to decide any matter related to polls.

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