AL irked as EC won't lift bar
The Election Commission yesterday rejected the demand of the Awami League and the Jatiya Party for changing a provision of the electoral code that bars MPs from electioneering, drawing sharp reactions from both the parties.
The commission has also said “no” to BNP's call for deferring the polls by 15 days.
On Sunday, two delegations of the ruling AL and the main opposition in parliament JP, which also holds cabinet posts, submitted proposals to the chief election commissioner (CEC), seeking the change so that lawmakers can campaign for mayoral aspirants in the December 30 municipal polls.
Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, several AL and JP leaders described the commission's decision as unfair, discriminatory, and against the spirit of the election.
However, BNP leaders welcomed it, though it criticised the EC for not entertaining its demand for deferring the vote. The BNP submitted a proposal to the CEC in this regard on Sunday.
An EC meeting yesterday decided that any change to the code of conduct after the announcement of polls schedule would create controversy.
Two election commissioners who opposed the change argued that if MPs were allowed to join the campaign trail, the polls might be influenced. And if that happens, people's confidence in the EC will erode, said meeting sources.
"It will not be proper to bring any change in the electoral code of conduct now," Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad told reporters after the meeting.
Talking about the BNP demand, the CEC said they must hold the polls by December.
It is not possible to hold polls in January and February when the EC will update the voter list. Also, there will be public examinations at the time, he added.
The decision over the AL and the JP demand means more than 41 central leaders of the AL in the election areas, who are also MPs, cannot take part in campaign. Moreover, party presidents and secretaries of most district units are barred from campaigning as they are MPs too. Only 25 central leaders, who are not lawmakers, can campaign for party-nominated mayoral candidates.
"The code of conduct keeping lawmakers out of electioneering would destroy the spirit of the first ever partisan local government polls," said Suranjit Sengupta, a member of the AL advisory council.
"Lawmakers have no executive power, so keeping them out of the election will set a bad precedence," said Suranjit, also chief of the parliamentary standing committee on the law ministry.
He, however, said the EC being a constitutional body could make any decision it thought fit and that they “hailed” it.
By rejecting both the AL and the BNP demands, the EC “perhaps made both sides unhappy,” he added.
Abdul Matin Khasru, AL's law affairs secretary, said the EC's decision was unfair.
"All central leaders of the BNP were ministers and MPs in the past and they are getting the opportunity to campaign, but we are not. The decision will not ensure level-playing field and it is a discrimination against the Awami League," said Matin, also a former law minister.
Faruk Khan, also an AL lawmaker, said he did not understand why the EC made the decision. "MPs have no executive power and since it is a partisan election, they must have the right to electioneering."
AL lawmakers Abdur Razzak and Abdur Rahman made similar comments, while the party's publicity secretary Hasan Mahmud described the EC decision as “ridiculous and peculiar".
Asked, Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu, secretary general of JP, said preventing MPs from electioneering was a clear case of discrimination and it denied them their constitutional and democratic rights.
"The neutrality of the Election Commission will be questioned," he added.
But Osman Faruk, an adviser to the BNP chief, hailed the commission for not allowing MPs in electioneering. “We hope this decision stands.”
Other BNP leaders, however, criticised the EC for not deferring the polls date.
According to Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, a BNP standing committee member, the EC's rejection of their demand would create “confusion” over its sincerity in holding the polls in a neutral and impartial manner.
“The rejection means it did not exercise its power impartially to consider the BNP's demand,” he said.
But he added the BNP would not boycott the election.
Meanwhile, the AL's nomination board has finalised almost all party-backed mayoral candidates for the 236 municipalities that go to polls on December 30.
A 6:00pm to 11:30pm meeting of the board, held at the Gono Bhaban with party chief Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, completed the process.
Hasina is likely to attest the party-designated candidates at the Gono Bhaban this evening, said AL leader Faruk Khan.
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