The EC's interaction with the media follows its con-sultation with the civil society leaders. The cycle of dis-course designed to elicit opinions from all stakeholders on the reform agenda will be completed when the EC will have had a dialogue with the political parties following withdrawal of ban on indoor politics. That is awaited now.

We have basically four new proposals to endorse from amongst a plethora that were made at the EC-editors meet. First and foremost, the EC's proposal to adopt a provision for casting 'no vote' in the parliamentary election to denote no confidence in a contesting candidate or two merits support because it can truly help the voter exercise his or her right of choice effectively. But the 'no vote' cannot be just for 'an academic purpose' as suggested by the EC; for, where 'no votes' cast in a constituency would account for 50 percent or above of the total number of votes, it is imperative that re-election takes place to yield a clear-cut result. The second proposal relates to making it incumbent on political parties to accommodate at least 33 percent women as office bearers of its central committee and other committees at different levels. This sounds as a most auspicious addition to women's empowerment agenda. Thirdly, on the question of de-linking student, labour and other front organisations from the political parties we are for repeal of the Political Party Act, 1978 as suggested by the CEC that allowed for front organisa-tions to political parties during Ziaur Rahman's rule.

Last but not least, there is a rationale for debarring government servants from participating in electoral politics within three years from their retirement. This is because there is a plenty of examples where a government servant nurtured his constituency during the last few years in office by using his power and influence and then throwing his hat into the electoral ring immediately on retirement from government service. This is not just unfair to the professional politicians with years of dedicated service to a political party to their credit to be considered as election candidate but also fuels opportunism in politics which basically weakens democracy.