"No political party shall receive any donation or funding from any foreign country or organisation or a person who is not of Bangladesh origin," the EC said in its draft proposal. The proposal was recently drafted as part of its ongoing initiative for electoral reforms to ensure financial transparency in the activities of political parties.

Major political parties including Awami League, BNP, Jatiya Party and Jamaat-e-Islami have reportedly been collecting funds from foreign sources for a long time particularly to run their election campaigns.

A number of AL and BNP leaders detained on charge of corruption have allegedly admitted to taking money from foreign sources to run their party's election campaigns.

Former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar, during quizzing by the Task Force for Interrogation (TFI), divulged to the interrogators that BNP chairperson and immediate past prime minister Khaleda Zia collected Tk 300 crore for election funding from the governments of Pakistan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia before the stalled ninth parliamentary elections.

Once the EC's proposal is made a law, none of the political parties will be allowed to collect funds from foreign sources and registration of a political party will be cancelled if it violates the law.

"If any registered political party receives any donation or funds from any foreign country or organisation, it will be detected during auditing," Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) Sakhawat Hossain told The Daily Star yesterday.

"Besides, we can ask intelligence agencies to investigate whether any political party received any donation or fund from foreign sources," he added.

Election Commissioner Sahul Hossain said if such anomalies were detected in auditing, the political party would be provided with the scope to explain its position on this. "If the party fails to come up with reasonable answers or refute the allegation, its registration might be cancelled," he said.

In defence of drafting the proposal, the EC said in the absence of any such regulations, political parties can collect funds from any sources. "The facility is reportedly being misused. So, collection of funds from any foreign country, organisation or persons should be stopped," it explained.

The political parties, however, will be allowed to collect funds through donations from domestic sources. "Donation or gift made to a registered political party by an individual or a private company or a group of companies or a non-government organisation shall be exempted from paying tax for such donations or gifts if the donor is a tax payer," the EC said proposing a legal procedure for donating to political parties.

The EC has also decided to properly enforce the existing election laws regarding political parties' election expenses.

"Every political party nominating any candidate for elections shall maintain proper account of all its incomes and expenditures for the period from the date of publication of the election schedule till the completion of elections in all the constituencies in which it has nominated candidates and such account shall show clearly the amount received by it as donation above Tk 1,000 from any candidate or any person seeking nomination or from any other person or source giving their names and addresses and the amount received from each of them and the mode of receipt," the election laws say.

EC SECRETAIRAT INDEPENDENCE
The EC last Thursday sent a proposal to the chief adviser for separation of its secretariat from the control of the prime minister's office (PMO).

Earlier, the EC on several occasions said that an amendment to the constitution is required to separate the EC Secretariat from the PMO.

Sahul Hossain said, "We have now proposed to separate the commission's secretariat from the PMO by amending the rules of business."

In the government's rules of business, the EC Secretariat is now under the control of the PMO.

"Once, the commission secretariat is separated from the PMO, we will be able to recruit and control the officials of the commission's secretariat," Sahul said. He said the EC has sent the proposal and now the government will decide the next course of action in this regard.