Shujan proposes search body to reform EC
Shushasoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan), a citizens' platform advocating good governance, today demanded formulation a search committee to reconstitute the Election Commission.
A five-member committee, to be chaired by one senior Justice of the Appellate Division nominated by Chief Justice, will comprise of four representatives one each from Awami League and BNP-led alliances, civil society and mass media.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. With the demand for enacting a law, Shujan placed the proposal at a roundtable titled “Election Commission Reformation and Citizens’ Thoughts” at Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka this morning.
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It should be ensured that civil society and mass media representatives have no nepotism or biasness to any political parties, according to the proposal.
Reading out the keynote paper, Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of the civil society platform said despite a constitutional obligation to formulate law, the provision has never been followed.
“So law needs to be formulated to reconstitute the commission as it is mandatory in 118 Chapter of the constitution,” he said.
He further said that legality of recruitment in the commission without any specific law will be “questionable”.
The law will stipulate the qualifications, responsibilities and other activities of the commission, he added underscoring the goodwill and neutrality from political parties and concerned authorities.
Among others, former CEC ATM Shamsul Huda, former EC Brig Gen (retd) M Shakhawat Hossain, former cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder and Dhaka University law professor Asif Nazrul, spoke at the function, presided over by Shujan President M Hafiz Uddin Khan, also former adviser to a caretaker government.
Meanwhile, after months of calm, the country's politics could heat up again over the process of forming a new Election Commission, which would oversee the 2019 general election.
The tenure of the existing EC expires in February.
The ruling Awami League-led alliance wants the new EC to be formed by a search committee under the jurisdiction of the president, a power vested in him by the constitution.
On the other hand, the BNP-led 20-party alliance and other political parties not aligned to the AL-led 14-party alliance want dialogue with all stakeholders before formation of such a committee. They have warned the government against any move to have a “subservient election commission”.
The current EC, led by Kazi Rakib Uddin Ahmad, drew a lot of flak over how it conducted polls during its four-year tenure. It held a general election in 2014 that the BNP-led alliance boycotted. It held city corporation, municipality, and upazila parishad elections that were marred by violence and irregularities.
Its worst performance was in the union parishad elections earlier this year when 126 people died in violence.
The ongoing debate over how the EC should be formed began after Law Minister Anisul Huq had said a search committee would be set up to form the new EC.
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