The Awami League-led grand alliance government has curtailed the Election Commission’s (EC) authority to take action against political parties breaching registration provisions.
The caretaker administration empowered the EC to cancel registration of a political party for violating the provisions regarding nomination of parliamentary candidates and formation of associated bodies.
But a bill passed in parliament on February 24 to ratify Representation of the People Order (amendment) ordinance restricts the EC’s power to enforce the registration provisions.
The EC now holds no authority to take punitive steps against a registered political party choosing candidates from outside the panel forwarded by its grassroots.
The commission can take no action also if a party forms or continues with organisations made up of teachers, students, workers or employees.
As per the latest amendments to the RPO, a registered political party is not bound to inform the EC if it has picked its parliamentary contenders from grassroots panel and formed affiliated bodies in compliance with the RPO provisions.
It will only have to inform the EC in the event of any independent lawmaker joining it. Failure to do so might cost the party its registration.
The changes have in fact diluted the RPO provisions for cancelling registration of a political party, observe EC Secretariat officials.
Titled Representation of the People Order (Amendment) Act 2009, the new law says the commission will scrap a party’s registration for failing to furnish the information required by this order (RPO) and electoral rules for consecutive years.
Unlike the ordinance, which prescribed cancellation of registration for not providing information for three years in a row, it does not specify time frame.
According to the act, a party might lose registration if it violates clause (4) of article 90B. Interestingly, 90B does not even have that clause.
The EC however retains the authority to cancel a party’s registration for not submitting election expense returns within the stipulated time frame, that is, 90 days since gazette notification of election results and an additional 30 days in some cases.
Besides, it still can cancel registration if a party dissolves itself, gets banned by the government or does not contest parliamentary elections for two consecutive terms.
The new law however makes it even harder for a newly floated political party to be registered with the EC.
It says a new party seeking registration must have functional headquarters, offices in at least one third of 64 districts and 100 upazilas or metropolitan thanas, and a minimum 200 voters as members in each of the units.
As per the previous conditions, having headquarters and offices in 10 administrative districts and 50 upazila or metropolitan thanas would suffice.
Senior officials at the EC Secretariat said the changes would benefit the registered political parties.
All major political parties including AL accepted the electoral reforms before the ninth parliamentary election, and brought provisional changes in their constitutions to be in conformity with the RPO provisions.
AL parliamentary board nominated candidates for the election from the panels prepared by the party’s grassroots level committees.
However, none of the political parties contesting the April 2 by-elections in seven constituencies has nominated candidates on recommendations of the grassroots.
The provision for picking parliamentary contenders from grassroots panels was introduced to curb business over nominations in the major political parties.
The prohibition against forming or having associated organisations comprising teachers, students and workers was envisioned to purge partisan politics from educational institutions and industries or businesses.
The definition chapter of the RPO act says the electoral roll means the final voter roll prepared under the Electoral Rolls Ordinance 2007. It says so even though the ordinance stopped functioning with the passage of Electoral Roll Act 2009 on February 24.
EC Secretariat officials said the definition must be changed.
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