| Supreme power of BNP chairperson curtailed Fronts, foreign chapters dissolved in interim charter; party submits form protesting the 'forced changes' Courtesy Daily Star 21/10/08 Staff Correspondent Absolute authority of BNP chairperson to form the party's standing and executive committees has been clipped in its revised constitution submitted to the Election Commission (EC) yesterday with the application for registration.
From now on, members of the two crucial bodies will be elected at national councils in efforts to ensure democratic practices within the organisation, said BNP sources citing the provisional charter.
The party chief's sole power to expel anyone and dissolve or reconstitute any committee too has been trimmed.
It was this authority that saw expulsion of former secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and joint secretary general Ashraf Hossain in a unilateral decision of Chairperson Khaleda Zia.
Political observers then termed the decision undemocratic. Even the EC observed that Bhuiyan and Ashraf had been 'deprived of natural justice'.
According to the interim constitution, the BNP chief shall exercise all her authority now in consultation with the standing committee, highest policymaking body.
The changes are meant to promote joint leadership, BNP standing committee member RA Gani told The Daily Star yesterday.
The new registration laws require the amended constitution to be ratified at national council within six months since the first sitting of the ninth parliament.
After submitting the application at the EC Secretariat at around 3:45pm, BNP Joint Secretary General Nazrul Islam Khan spoke to reporters about the amendments to their party constitution.
He said, “Usually, the national council is authorised to make amendments. But this time, the standing committee had been forced to do the job in a rather undemocratic manner.”
He said the reformed statute has no provisions for front organisations and overseas chapters.
However, it allows associated organisations made up of students, teachers and others professionals.
On foreign chapters, he said the Bangladeshi expatriates willing to champion Bangladeshi nationalism abroad can organise on their own, subject to the law of the country they reside in.
In line with the RPO stipulations, the revised BNP constitution provides for the grassroots level committees to select panels of prospective candidates for parliamentary election. The parliamentary board shall pick the contenders from those panels.
“In absence of committees in a constituency, the parliamentary board will step in to choose contestant there,” Nazrul explained.
In the interim charter, the party pledges to ensure 33 percent seats are reserved for women at all committees by 2020.
Replying to a query, he said BNP maintains two bank accounts. “Of those, one has Tk 5.80 crore for organisational purposes and the other Tk 46 lakh for relief funds.”
He said the provisional constitution requires the party to have its incomes and expenditures audited in every three months instead of six months.
“If necessary, the national council will bring about more changes,” Nazrul added.
BNP and its allies including Jamaat-e-Islami had been vehemently opposed to registration with the EC under the new electoral provisions.
They had been demanding that some provisions of the revised RPO be scrapped or suspended till the ninth parliamentary election is over.
Then in a major development, BNP and Jamaat collected application forms for registration Sunday, a day before the deadline for submissions.
The other partners of the BNP-led coalition--Islami Oikya Jote and Bangladesher Jatiya Party--too turned in applications yesterday.
Explaining the rationale for the shift in registration stance, the BNP joint secretary general said it occurred to the party high ups that a conspiracy was on to leave BNP out of the upcoming election. “We have opted to apply for registration to frustrate the plotters.”
Nazrul said the party's constitution was democratic, and the changes were made to conform to the RPO provisions.
According to the pre-revision BNP charter, national council was supposed to elect party head in every two years.
On election, the chairperson was to pick 14 members for the national standing committee and 251 for the executive committee.
The grassroots level committees would be elected at councils. | |