Bangladesh News

The government has shifted from its stance to repeal the Representation of the People’s Order (RPO) 1972 and wants to amend it, incorporating the Election Commission’s electoral reform proposals for conducting the parliamentary polls.

The move to amend the existing RPO instead of promulgating the recently approved Representation of the People’s Ordinance 2008 was taken in an apparent bid to satisfy the political parties.

The Election Commission (EC) drafted the Representation of the People’s Ordinance 2008 and subsequently the advisory council approved it in principle at a meeting on July 13 with the proposal for repealing the existing one.

A number of political parties vehemently opposed the move to repeal the existing RPO from the very beginning and blasted the caretaker government for approving the new ordinance.

Amid such a situation, Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed at a meeting with the EC yesterday morning disclosed the government’s plan to bring necessary amendments to the RPO 1972, sources said.

“Since everyone wants amendment to the existing RPO instead of promulgation of a new one, we do not have any objection to it,” Election Commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain, who met the chief adviser along with chief election commissioner, told reporters at his office.

The proposals drafted by the EC would be incorporated in the form of amendment, he said.

A huge task has to be done afresh to amend the RPO 1972.

All the electoral reform proposals along with the election rules and political parties’ registration rules will have to be drafted in English since the RPO 2008 was drafted in Bangla.

Sohul Hussain, however, said the EC expects to complete the task of bringing amendment to the RPO 1972 within the next 10 days.

The law ministry has already started working and the EC officials will help it, if necessary, Sohul said, adding that the chief adviser assured the commission of completing the task as soon as possible.

While the RPO 1972 is being amended, the EC will begin the process for registering the political parties to ensure their financial transparency and practice of internal democracy.

The current EC, which was reconstituted on February 4 last year, disclosed the draft proposals for electoral reforms on April 5 last year and announced to finalise the draft in consultation with the political parties.

But it could not hold talks with the political parties since the caretaker government did not allow indoor politics until September 10 last year. After the government allowed indoor politics in the capital, the EC began holding talks with the parties from September 12.

It wrapped up the talks after holding the second round of dialogue this February and sent the draft proposals to the government in May to make them laws.

At the talks with the EC, major political parties opposed its move to repeal the existing RPO to clear the way for promulgating a new one and suggested amending the existing RPO.

At the meeting with the chief adviser at his office yesterday, the EC also informed him of its preparations for holding the upazila and parliamentary elections.