According to the proposed regulations, the parties, in order to be registered, without which they won't be allowed to contest the elections, would need to fulfil eight conditions before becoming eligible for registration. All eight eligible conditions are noteworthy, especially the ones which specify that internal organization of parties must conform to democratic norms and practices and must have one-third women members at every tier of parties' internal structure. These are undoubtedly commendable steps in order to ensure transparency in politics and women's impact on parties' policy making. I intend to address these two issues in two instalments of my write-up. First I would like to deal with the question of transparency and consequently why is it so vital to have the registration of the political parties.

To begin with one has to realise that world wide there has been an erosion of idealism. Gone are the days when peoples' priority was directed not towards self-aggrandisement but in the development of a character that is characterised by self-lessness, compassion, empathy and being sensitive to rights of others. In the era of unfettered materialism and material pursuit, I feel, we have become disoriented and cannot really claim that we posses the commitments of the by-gone era when our leaders worked for their country by serving the needy, the helpless, and the disempowered.

Such single-minded pursuit of materialism has made undeniable mark of self-centeredness, egotism and insensitiveness on our self. It has also polluted our politics. One is, thus, not surprised at the findings of a survey that indicate rampant practice of corruption among the parliamentarians world wide. It is discernible that it has become easier for the parliamentarians to indulge in all sorts of corruption and malpractice when the state power is at their disposal. Such tendencies are heightened when there is a total lack of transparency in politics. Bangladesh is one such example.

In Bangladesh, during out fifteen years of democracy, we have witnessed steady deterioration of moral values among our political leaders who refrained from building the political parties as democratic institutions. As a result, the parties in Bangladesh are fraught with problematic predicaments like authoritarianism within the party, non-democratic nomination process, and improper party-funding and campaigning etc. In this purview, it has not been difficult for the political opportunists, with their money and muscle, to make inroads within the folds of the major political parties. The presence of muscle and money and their ability to manipulate elections greatly hampered much needed institutionalisation of our nascent democracy.

The danger has been that this also slowly and steadily contributed to the erosion of people's faith in the parties thereby eroding their faith in the system itself. These danger signs were repeatedly highlighted by the civil society members and concerned quarters but that fell on deaf ear. The parties refused to go for their reforms and registration voluntarily in order to bridge the gap between them and the people and do away with the notion that they are out of reach of the people to ventilate their grievances. The demand for a comprehensive approach to regulate the activities of the parties was of no avail. But people's faith in political parties and politics cannot be restored unless there is transparency in politics and clear politics is introduced.

Now the political parties in Bangladesh may not like the idea of conditional compulsory registration on the grounds that their freedom of activities would be hampered under such action of EC, but they should keep this in mind that as they have their constitutional rights to form association without undue interference, we the people also have the right to know how they operate. The people's daily lives are impacted by their actions, as such, they have a right to know what they (political parties) are up to. And since sovereignty of the state lies with the people and people are source of all powers, the political parties must adhere to their (people's) wishes.

One should also keep this in mind that legal and constitutional measures to regulate the parties is not a Bangladeshi innovation. It is understood that in the past the parties themselves carried the necessary reform in order to remain transparent but as mentioned earlier, with factors like erosion of moral values, emergence of non-state actors and the like, politics without transparency has now become a dangerous game and certain activities of the political parties may be detrimental to the interest of the state.

Even in a country like Great Britain, which is considered to be the mother parliament, and known for its impeccable reputation of traditions and conventions, reform of the political parties has been brought about through The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. The Act, which is a part of the constitutional reforms programme implemented by the Labour Government, building on the Registration of Political Parties Act 1998 two years earlier, allows parties only to accept donations in excess of sterling pound 200 from 'permissible donors.'

In December 2006, police questioned Prime Minister Tony Blair and other politicians of other parties as part of their investigation into the 'Cash for Peerages affair' when they were looking into whether the Act had been breached by parties taking loans from supporters in return for nominations to the House of Lords. Since then the government has amended the law to require the declaration of all forms of loans as well.

Another example may be cited from Germany where Article 21 of Basic Law makes sure that the inner organisations of parties contesting the elections do adhere to the democratic norms and practices. This constitutional provision came about after Germany's bitter experience of Nazi party's rule, which came to power through election but did not have democratic practices within its inner organisation, and played havoc in Germany's history.

Canada has elaborate regulations of registration that make the parties abide by the procedures of selection of party leaders and stalwarts through a system of national leadership convention where each party delegate can cast his own vote through a secret ballot. There are examples from our region as well as other countries.

It is, thus, evident that even in the developed democracies legal and constitutional measures are being introduced in order to guide and regulate the political parties and presently, it is not at all out of rule. In this context, the question as to whether or not only the parties have the right to carry out the relevant reforms and any initiatives by the government means interference by outsiders becomes redundant. Our political parties must remember that having reforms and registration of the parties do not mean that the government is trying to put them out of business. On the contrary, policing of the parties by the EC should be welcomed as it aims to bring changes that would introduce clean politics in the country.

They have nothing to fear since the EC will introduce the necessary reforms only after consulting the major political parties, and hopefully, the parties would agree to the reforms through which the country would benefit greatly. It should be kept in mind that introducing new electoral laws or amending the existing electoral laws by the caretaker government is not a new phenomenon in Bangladesh. We have the precedents from our past caretaker government. As a matter of fact, most of the draconian laws including restriction on the freedom of the press were repealed by the caretaker government and not by any democratic regime. That is the irony of our democratic legacy.

From the development prior to and after January 11, it is amply clear that presently, the country is in a serious political crisis. The political vacuum in the country must be filled without having any major aberrations and by holding free, fair and transparent elections. We know that there cannot be any democracy without political parties. No one is trying to get rid of them. Attempts are only being made so that parties emerge as truly democratic institutions and play their designated role in building democracy in Bangladesh. As such, it would be highly appreciated by the people if the parties also demonstrate that they too are committed, by agreeing to necessary reforms, to ideals of democracy without which the country cannot make any substantive and meaningful progress.

Dilara Choudhury is Professor, Department of Government and Politics, Jahangirnagar University.