Bangladesh News

The Election Commission (EC) is going to have the authority to provide magisterial power to officials on duty in city corporation and municipality elections to hold summary trial for electoral offences.

The law ministry okayed on Sunday the EC-drafted election rules for these local government bodies, providing it with this authority, sources in the EC said.

The EC is set to promulgate anytime the new election rules and code of conduct in preparation for holding polls in four city corporations and nine municipalities next month. It will announce the polls schedule in a couple of days.

In the past, the government used to vest magistracy in its officials and deploy them as mobile courts during polls for summary trial of electoral offences.

In exercise of the power the EC now holds, it can provide persons on polls duty, including presiding officers or polling officers, with magisterial power for summary trial. It only has to inform the government to take necessary steps in this regard.

But members of the law enforcement agencies engaged in polls duty, who include defence forces personnel cannot be vested with the authority to try electoral offences. However, they have been empowered to arrest anybody without warrant for committing electoral offences on polling day.

According to the new election rules for city corporations and municipalities, polls offences include canvassing for any candidates or seeking votes for them within a radius of 400 yards of polling centres on election day, persuading voters not to cast votes in the election or for a particular candidate, or making undue influence in voting and creating obstacles to it.

A person guilty of polls offences will be punished through summary trial for six months to seven years in jail.

In holding summary trial, persons authorised by the EC can exercise powers of first class magistrate under the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) 1898. They can also take cognisance of any offences under any clauses of Section 190 (1) of the CPC for such trial.