Consensus Commission to begin 2nd round of talks with parties in early June

The Consensus Commission will begin the second round of discussions with political parties regarding the reform process in the first week of June.

Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus is set to inaugurate the upcoming round of dialogue.

The decision to launch the next phase of discussions was made today during a meeting of the Consensus Commission held at the State Guest House Jamuna, chaired by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus.

At the meeting, members of the commission briefed the chief adviser on the latest progress of discussions with political parties.

The first round of talks between the political parties and the Consensus Commission had concluded on May 19.

During the meeting, the Chief Adviser advised involving civil society and grassroots organisations, in addition to political parties in order to raise public awareness regarding the reform process and elections.

"The public must be encouraged to participate in elections. Citizens must be made aware to prevent incidents like ballot box snatching. We need order and must ensure safe elections with public participation," the chief adviser said.

He added, "After such a major upheaval, the Bangladesh we have now should not remain the same as the one we inherited."

Today's meeting also included discussions on the formation of an independent commission to investigate the roles of those involved in irregularities during past elections.

Professor Ali Riaz, vice chairman of the commission, stated that all political parties have already reached a consensus on this matter.

Commission member Ayub Bhuiyan called for the immediate formation of a Public Administration Reform Implementation Commission.

He noted that many government agencies still follow the organograms formulated by the Enam Commission in 1982, which have since become outdated.

"New agencies have also been formed in the meantime. A new commission would help restructure these organograms," he said.

Bhuiyan also pointed out that, in addition to the Public Administration Commission, two other commissions have worked on reforming the National Board of Revenue (NBR), resulting in a lack of coordination.

Emdadul Haque, representing the Judicial Reform Commission, urged the chief adviser to ensure that the newly formed commission for appointing Supreme Court judges functions transparently based on the consensus of political parties.

Iftekharuzzaman, representative of the Anti-Corruption Reform Commission, called for a roadmap to implement the recommendations of reform commissions that have been formed outside of the six primary commissions—particularly those focusing on media, labour, local government, women, and health.

Badiul Alam Majumdar, head of the Election Commission Reform Commission, urged that the draft proposal prepared for the 2008 local government elections be formally issued as an ordinance.

Also present at the meeting was Soffor Raj Hossain, representative of the Police Reform Commission.