Pick non-politcal election observers
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda yesterday urged the representatives of the election monitoring organisations to be careful so that no one having political affiliation is appointed as observer.
“You will have to be careful so that no person linked to politics can be appointed as election observer,” he said in his inaugural speech during a dialogue with election monitoring organisations at the Nirbachan Bhaban in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the capital.
Some 30 representatives of the organisations attended the dialogue with the CEC in the chair.
The CEC also urged the election observes to carry out their duties maintaining neutrality and impartiality.
He also asked the organisations to remain careful so that their monitoring activities do not hamper the vote-casting process.
Emerging from the meeting, election observer representatives told journalists that they proposed the commission to arrange training programmes for chiefs of the organisations through the EC's Electoral Training Institute; the organisations will subsequently train up their respective observers.
Jatiya Nirbachan Parjabekkhan Parishad Chairman Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah said, “We have placed specific proposal for arrangement of training of trainers (ToT) particularly for the chiefs of the election monitoring organisations through EC's electoral training institute.”
“It will be good if the commission informs us what can be done or cannot be during election monitoring,” he added.
Director of the Election Working Group (EWG) Dr Abdul Alim said the observers suggested announcing a national voter day and conducting the campaign for data collection of possible voters on certain days every year.
They also recommended introducing Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) instead of ballot paper after use of the EVMs on a pilot basis, said the director of EWG.
“We urged the EC to take action against those election monitoring organisations having affiliation with political parties,” he said.
Fair Election Monitoring Alliance (FEMA) President Munira Khan said they have never appointed any person affiliated with politics as observer. “During the appointment, we take written declaration that s/he has no political affiliation,” she added.
She said they asked the CEC to reduce the age restriction for being an election observer to 20 years from the existing 25. “If we can appoint more active persons as observers, it will be more fruitful.”
The EC on July 31 last started its electoral talks with different stakeholders, including political parties to seek opinions over the Commission's preparation for the next parliamentary elections.
As part of the dialogue, the EC held talks with civil society members on July 31, media persons on August 16 and 17, and 40 registered political parties from August 24 to October 19.
The Commission will also hold talks with women leaders on Monday and former election commissioners on Tuesday.
Comments