Draft bill okayed to extend time limit to 180 days

The cabinet in its weekly meeting with Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in the chair yesterday approved a draft bill to amend the constitution incorporating a provision for extending time limit for holding by-election in a vacant parliamentary seat to 180 days from 90 days.

The hurried move to pass the bill in parliament during its current session through extending its scheduled duration was taken to avoid holding two by-elections in the remaining tenure of the current Jatiya Sangsad.

The two parliamentary seats -- Dinajpur-3 and Comilla-8 -- fell vacant following death of two ruling BNP lawmakers Khurshid Jahan Haque and Col (rtd) Akbar Hossain last month.

When a lawmaker is elected for a short period before dissolution of a parliament, he/she does not get any scope to represent the constituency, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moudud Ahmed yesterday said.

"Through the proposed provision, spending of a big amount of public money and hassles of the administration for holding by-elections would be avoided," Moudud said, explaining the rationale of bringing the amendment.

The law minister said to get the bill passed, the current parliament session scheduled to be prorogued on July 12 will be extended for a few days and the Business Advisory Committee will sit in a meeting on Wednesday to extend the tenure of the session.

Officials at the Election Commission Secretariat, who are now busy with the task for updating the voter list, yesterday expressed satisfaction over the move, as they will be relieved of the 'extra burden' of the by-elections.

The draft amendment of the constitution (15th amendment), if passed, will be the second amendment of the constitution during the present BNP-led alliance government.

Section 4 of article 123 of the constitution provides for holding by-election in a constituency within 90 days of its becoming vacant due to any reason.

However, if it is not possible due to 'any act of God,' 90 more days are allowed.

"In the amendment, we will propose not to hold by-election in any vacant seat if the tenure of a parliament remains for only 180 days or less," Moudud said.

The law minister presented examples of a few countries including Malaysia, where the approved period for holding by-election is two years.

In some countries, the party concerned nominates another as MP following the death of a sitting lawmaker, he added.

Besides, the cabinet also endorsed 'Commercially Important Person (expatriate Bangladeshis) Selection Policy 2006' setting the criteria for selection of expatriate CIPs.