Editorial
Election roadmap
Go all out for implementation
The much-awaited roadmap for holding a credible general election by December 2008 has been presented before the nation by the Election Commission (EC). It brings to tangible form the assurance given earlier by the EC of an indicative timeline for the election following the pilot project for preparing voter list with photograph completed at Sripur. Though the roadmap may look a bit ambitious on certain points, nevertheless we feel the EC deserves a pat on the back for setting the ball rolling. We understand the plan aims to initiate a dialogue with the political parties from September this year on the electoral reforms that have been topics of extensive deliberation for the past months. But we feel the government first needs to lift the ban on indoor politics for political parties to do their homework well in advance to make the dialogue a meaningful exercise. To our judgement, political parties would need several weeks to prepare their list of priorities. The roadmap envisages completion of the voter list by mid October 2008 and holding of elections in December 2008. We think it is cutting it too fine. There should be a sufficient time-lag between preparation of the voter list and holding of election. The roadmap sets about completing some legal and institutional reforms by February 2008, including reforms of the Representation of People's Order, 1972; the Electoral Roll Ordinance, 1982; the Election Commission (registration of Political Parties) Rules, 2001; the Conduct of Election Rules, 1972 and the Parliament Election Code of Conduct for the Political Parties and the Contesting Candidates Rules, 1996. The EC plans to complete registration of the political parties by June 2008, which we believe is doable provided the EC has competent staff on its payroll. We once again congratulate the EC for coming up with a concrete plan to progressively move towards holding the general elections, including upazila elections, and it is appreciable that some deadlines have been given in the plan. What is required now is full government commitment to go all out for implementation of the plans after exchanging views with the political parties. The cooperation of the people in the implementation of the roadmap is another imperative that cannot be overlooked.
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