EC'S ROADMAP SET TO MISS?
The Election Commission is going full speed ahead with the voters list, but is lagging behind in several other sectors
by Ahmed Sarder
With huge hope pinned on the incumbent election commissioners, the Election Commission was reconstituted on February 4 last year following resignations of the erstwhile Chief Election Commissioner Justice MA Aziz and four other election commissioners. They had failed to prepare a flawless voter list leading to a confrontational political situation over the ninth parliamentary polls.
Soon after its formation, the present EC led by Huda started chalking out a massive plan for electoral and structural reforms before going into holding the stalled ninth parliamentary election, which had earlier been scheduled for January 22.
Taking charge, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda had said his first task would be presenting the nation a credible election with major electoral reforms, in consultation with the political parties and other stakeholders. He also said he would make the Election Commission an institution in which every citizen can take pride. "The Commission must restore public confidence in it by ensuring transparency in all its activities. A level playing field should be created so that all can participate in the polls," he said.
After about six months of the reconstitution on July 15, the Election Commission announced its comprehensive plan, termed as the 'Road Map', for holding the next election, stipulating that a voter list with photographs would be ready by October 2008 and that the parliamentary polls would be held by December the same year. EC's spadework also included preparation of the voter list with photograph plus ID cards, formulation of new electoral laws, political parties' registration, completion of delimitation of the election constituencies and elections to the local government bodies ranging from upazila parishad to union parishad.
However, at this stage the Election Commission apparently looks set to miss the deadline for most of the tasks specified in the electoral roadmap it unveiled towards holding the stalled elections to the Ninth Jatiya Sangsad.
Although the Election Commission is repeatedly claiming that all the tasks of the road map will definitely be completed within the scheduled time and nothing would defer the election timeline, political analysts and election experts are not agreeing with the commission and have already warned it against undertaking extended tasks which might hinder the election on time. The Election Commission is apparently reeling under half-done and quarter done tasks.
Preparation of the voter list
In line with the announced road map, the Election Commission will have to complete preparation of voter list by October 2008. It started preparation of the voters' roll with photographs and national identity cards. However, its own contribution to the project was minimal, the army doing the bulk of the work. The Election Commission is claiming that names of some three crore voters have so far been enlisted in the voter list. According to the previous voter list, the number of voters was 9 crore and 32 lac. That means one third of the total task of voter list is completed. However, the experts question whether the preparation of the voter list with those 3 crore voters has actually been carried out completely. They argue that simply the enlistment of the names of voters does not mean that the task of preparing the voter list is complete. There is the task of correction, addition and deletion and publishing a draft of the list.
Although the Commission has decided in principle to enlist the names of expatriate voters this time in the electoral roll, there is no visible progress in this regard. The two elections commissioners – M Sohul Hussain and M Sakhawat Hussain – were on a visit to the United Kingdom
Dialogue with parties and finalisation of electoral reforms
According to the road map, the Commission had kept three months, from September to November, to hold dialogue with the political parties, aiming at finalizing the changes it has undertaken regarding the electoral laws. But the Commission missed the November 2007 deadline to wrap up its dialogue with the political parties over the proposed electoral reforms because of delay in resolving the legal dispute over which faction of BNP should represent the party at the talks.
The Commission proposed a set of reforms in the electoral laws and initiated dialogues with the political parties on the planned reforms. It held talks with 14 political parties but the process was stalled in the face of a dispute over which faction of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party should be invited to the dialogue. The issue remains pending with the court.
It issued several statements that it would request the High Court to expedite the hearing and disposal of a writ petition filed by the detained BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, challenging the decision to invite the faction led by Saifur Rahman and Hafizuddin Ahmed. However, the hearing on the writ will be held on February 12.
Although the Election Commission had set February for finalizing the electoral reforms, now they have shifted their deadline. They will finalize the tasks by March. "Now we will complete the tasks of finalizing the draft electoral reforms by March and it is immaterial whether the dialogue with parties is not held or not. You see, the dialogue is not necessary," Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain told this correspondent recently.
However, if it misses the deadline again, it will be embroiled in complexities in April as the Commission has decided to hold elections to the local government bodies in April and then it would be ostensibly difficult to carry out two vital tasks simultaneously. Although the Commission is talking about alternative ways to resolve the problem if it cannot be solved normally, analysts questions whether the alternative ways will be effective.
Delimitation of the constituencies
Disregarding opposition from almost all the political parties, the Election Commission has decided to conduct the delimitation and it has completed its groundwork. According to the Delimitation of Constituencies Ordinance 1976, the Election Commission will have to rearrange the election constituencies once the country's census report is published.
"In the 2001 election, the parliamentary constituency of Dhaka-5 had a total of 6.33 lakh voters while Faridpur-5 had 1.54 lakh voters. Such inconsistencies cannot remain," the CEC argued, to justify the Commission's stand while announcing a plan for rearranging the constituencies. The Election Commission allocated six months' time, from this January to June, to complete the rearrangement.
According to the Delimitation of Constituencies Ordinance 1976, the parliamentary constituencies are supposed to be demarcated following each census. But the task was not carried out even after completing the census in 2001 as the census report was not available.
Electoral experts have long been demanding rearrangement of the constituencies to bring about a balance among them. They also observed that it would be unfair to fix a universal ceiling on campaign spending without brining a balance among the constituencies.
Delimiting the constituencies would seemingly be the toughest tasks of the Election Commission as it might have to face challenges concerning this. There is precedent of not holding elections in many constituencies for several years until the issue was at last moved to the court.
In its groundwork, the Election Commission has identified 49 constituencies out of 300 constituencies to be rearranged. After publishing the gazette notification of the rearranged constituencies, the Election Commission will solicit objection and suggestions from the concerned people. The experts are apprehending that the Commission will further be embroiled in legal complexities and it might take several months once the issues are taken to the court. They are arguing that the commission could not yet solve the issue of BNP, as it is now subjudice for at least three months.
The CEC repeatedly says that they have alternatives in case of legal complexities. If the Commission will have to suspend elections to some 40 constituencies, it will affect the election result. Again, it would not be acceptable that elections to most of the constituencies would be held with the new map and the rest with the old demarcation.
Political parties' registration with the EC
For the first time in Bangladesh
"We want to be registered with the Commission, but the Commission will have to tell us the conditions of being registered first. Then we will have to discuss the provisions in our party forum as well as with the grassroots level leaders," said Jatiya Party presidium member GM Qader.
If the state of emergency is not lifted before June, the political parties might take a U-turn in case of the party registration. They might demand opening of the political activities across the country before taking any decision regarding the registration, arguing that they need to talk to the grassroots level leaders.
Meanwhile, the Commission might have to face another problem as the country's left-leaning political parties have voiced their demand for not registering Jamaat-e-Islami as a political party.
Election to the local bodies
As the current caretaker government has shown its keen interest in holding the upazila elections, the Election Commission has decided to complete all the local bodies' election before the stalled parliamentary election and the advisory council has already empowered the EC to announce the election date on its own decision.
The tenure of the city corporations in Dhaka , Rajshahi and Khulna
Meanwhile, the five-year tenure of over 4,000 union parishads will expire between January and March this year. According to the laws, elections to the union parishads are to be held within the last six months of their tenure. Although the Election Commission had decided to hold Union Parishad elections, they have now abandoned the plan.
The roadmap also detailed a number of reforms within the Commission itself. According to the proposed reforms, the Commission should have had its own building while its secretariat should have been made independent and its information technology wing strengthened by December 2007.
The activities of the commission – from the secretariat to the field level – were mostly done on ad hoc basis. The vacant positions at different levels of the Commission were not filled while frustration reportedly brewed among the officials who had been deprived of due promotions.
The commission did claim that there was a draft of amendments to its service rules, aiming to make the jobs of election officials transferable.
Against this backdrop, this correspondent approached Election Commissioner Brig Gen Sakhawat Hossain to ask exactly what they are thinking. The EC said, "The election will of course be held by December 2008. You see, it is not necessary to complete all the tasks in line with the announced road map. There might be changes to some extent in the time line."
Status of election essentials
Voter list: One third completed
Political parties' registration: Yet to start
Delimitation: Just commenced
Conditions for registering political parties
1. To be eligible for registration, an existing party must have won at least one seat in any of the national assembly or parliament election held since independence or obtained not less than 2 per cent of the total vote.
2. Every registered political party shall make specific provisions in its constitution regarding organizational elections at different levels and the time of such elections and terms of the offices of the office bearers of the party units and all office bearers must be elected for a term as specified in its constitution.
3. Every party shall make specific provisions in its constitution regarding inclusion of at least 33 percent women as office bearers of its central committee and other committees.
4. Every registered party shall hold its national council or convention for election of its central committee, by whatever name called, as prescribed by its constitution or within every three years, whichever is earlier.
5. Every party shall submit to the Commission an annual statement of its accounts for the immediate past calendar year on or before 31 July.
6. No registered political party shall form any front organization with the students of any educational institution.
Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage. __._,_.___
[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
To unsubscribe/subscribe, send request to alochona-owner@egroups.com
Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___