EC watches time tick away

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The Election Commission (EC) might not be able to ensure registration of the political parties and intra-party reforms before the ninth parliamentary polls due to time constraints.

The proposed changes to the electoral laws to that effect have yet to be laid down whereas those were supposed to take effect by February and require the political parties to register with the EC by June, according to the EC roadmap.

With the national election planned for the third week of December, the parties were to be given four months to amend their constitutions and have new committees through councils to meet the proposed criteria for registration.

But the EC could not even begin the registration task yet for absence of the necessary laws.

Political observers said both the EC and the caretaker government are to be blamed for the delay. While the commission took time way longer than necessary to firm up the proposals, the government caused obstacles in its way to have political parties’ feedback on the proposed electoral reforms.

Even if the drafts are made into laws this month, the EC will have only two months to get the political parties register with it. It will have to announce schedule by early November to hold the long-stalled parliamentary election in the third week of December, said election officials.

Meanwhile, the major political parties including Awami League (AL) and BNP wait for the amendments to the electoral laws and withdrawal of the state of emergency to start working towards registration.

They have long been calling for the military-backed caretaker administration to lift the state of emergency allowing them to convene to amend their constitutions and bring about intra-party reforms.

Several senior leaders said holding councils and electing committees at different levels warrant massive efforts and time, and it’s not possible to pull those off in two months.

Besides, the parties are bitterly opposed to some of the criteria proposed for registration. They describe those as attempts to pull ranks on them.

“We are not against registration. But some of the criteria that the Election Commission has proposed for that will not help the political parties,” BNP Vice-president MK Anwar told The Daily Star yesterday.

He termed the criteria for registration unrealistic and ambitious.

“Most of the major political parties will have to amend their constitutions since they hardly match the proposed criteria. Making amendments is always a mammoth task as it requires involvement of the party grassroots,” observed Anwar, also former agriculture minister.

Anwar, leader of Khaleda Zia led BNP which was not invited by the EC to its electoral reform talks, argued.

According to the proposed laws, AL, BNP and Jatiya Party must sever ties with at least 17 of their front organisations and elect new committees through councils to be registered with the EC.

AL Presidium Member Suranjit Sengupta said the EC has already failed with regard to the time it set itself for registration of the political parties.

“It’s quite difficult to hold national council in such a short time. Awami League needs at least four to five months to organise council,” he told The Daily Star.

“Moreover, there remains the state of emergency, a serious obstacle to holding party council.”

The AL leader said the EC would better act more promptly and realistically to remove doubt from the public mind over the holding of parliamentary polls.

Jatiya Party’s acting chairman Anisul Islam Mahmud observed that pessimism is running deep over success of the registration laws because of the long delay in ordaining those.

“The commission should start focussing their efforts on the parliamentary polls, setting aside all other plans including the one for upazila polls in October,” added the JP boss.

Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain has recently said it should take a very short time for the political parties to amend their constitutions.

AL, BNP and Jatiya Party leaders however said for Ramadan it might not be possible to hold national councils in September. And that would leave them with a little more than two months.

Then there’s the plan for upazila election in October. If the EC announces the schedule for those polls by mid-September, political parties will be busy working for the local government election.

Besides, they will have to start gearing up for the parliamentary polls too since there would be very little time left before the general election in December.

In this context, officials at the EC Secretariat fear the commission might have to face tremendous difficulties enforcing the amended electoral laws before the parliamentary polls.

They said the legal provision on mandatory use of voter identity cards in the 1996 election could not be enforced as the EC failed to issue voter ID cards in time.

This time, the commission might have to do without enforcing the laws regarding registration of the political parties unless there’s any significant development.

In 2001 election too, the EC could not implement all the reforms it sought for time constraint.

At that time, registration of the political parties could not be made mandatory in the face of opposition from the parties.

Immediately after its inception in February last year, the present EC led by ATM Shamsul Huda began drawing up plans for electoral and structural reforms.

On April 5 that year, it unveiled proposals for electoral reforms. The day before, it asked the caretaker government to allow indoor politics so the commission could have talks with the political parties and finalise the proposals.

Originally, the EC had planned to have the electoral reforms in place by August, 2007. But as the government did not allow indoor politics in the capital before September 10, it could not start the dialogue on electoral reforms on schedule.

Then when the talks began there came the issue of BNP factions, dragging the commission into controversy.

The EC could finally round up the dialogue in February this year.

It took two months to finalise the proposals in view of the feedback from the political parties and sent those to the government in May to translate them into laws.

On August 6, the caretaker government approved the proposed amendments to the Representation of People’s Order (RPO) 1972 with a provision for the political parties to register with the EC to be eligible to contest the polls.

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