Bangladesh News

The Election Commission (EC) yesterday asked the government to create a congenial atmosphere for holding local government elections from July amid the state of emergency.

Prior to leave for a meeting with Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda said EC does not want to embarrass the government by asking it to lift the state of emergency.

“We want a congenial atmosphere for holding the polls. It depends on the government whether it will lift or relax the restrictions to ensure the atmosphere. But we’ll not remain silent if the congenial atmosphere is not created,” CEC Huda told a press briefing on the occasion of unveiling a report on dialogues between EC and political parties.

The EC plans to announce the schedules by June 20 for polls to city corporations of Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet and nine municipalities in July.

Elections to Dhaka City Corporation and some other municipalities are likely to be held in between August and September, while polls to upazila parishads may start early October before the national polls in December.

“We’ve informed the chief adviser that we want to hold polls to four city corporations and nine municipalities in July. So we want that the government allow all poll related actives by either lifting or relaxing the restrictions on political activities in these areas,” Election Commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain told The Daily Star after the meet at the Chief Adviser’s Office.

The chief adviser assured EC of taking all necessary steps to create an environment conducive to holding the local government polls, Sohul added.

He said EC would inform the government of the areas where local government elections will be held in phases.

At the meeting, the CEC and the two election commissioners — Sohul Hussain and Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain — also discussed the issue of registering expatriate Bangladeshis as voters.

The chief adviser assured EC of cooperating with the move to enrol expats in the voter list with photographs.

The EC handed over a copy of the report on dialogues with the political parties to the chief adviser. Besides, it drew attention of his government on some crucial issues including formation of a “constitutional review commission” to address matters related to constitutional amendment and trial of war criminals.

Earlier yesterday, the CEC and other commissioners met President Iajuddin Ahmed and handed him over a copy of the report.

“The new parliament, if thinks appropriate, can form a constitutional review commission of legal experts. We think the current government has nothing to do with it,” CEC Huda said.

The “constitutional review commission”, if formed, will come up with recommendations for increasing parliamentary seats and women’s reserved seats, proportional representation, amendment of article 70 of the constitution and restructuring the power of top constitutional posts.

These issues dominated the dialogues between EC and political parties on electoral reforms.

During yesterday’s meetings, EC informed the president and the chief adviser about the important issues incorporated in the report, in which the commission made its proposals for making laws on appointment of CEC and election commissioners through consensus of political parties in parliament.

According to the proposals, the Business Advisory Committee of the Jatiya Sangsad will approve a panel of individuals for appointment by the president as the CEC and election commissioners.

A search committee led by CEC will prepare a preliminary panel for consideration of the Business Advisory Committee.

In defence of the proposals, the CEC said top leaders of the political parties representing parliament are members of the Business Advisory Committee headed by the speaker.

“So the system, if introduced, will curtail the absolute power of the prime minister to appoint the chief election commissioner and other election commissioners,” CEC Huda said.

The proposals also say EC should be constituted with three members including the CEC and one them will be a woman.