EC Reform Dialogue Today: BNP to talk also on polls-time govt

The president's talks with political parties on the formation of a new Election Commission starts today amid hopes of a stronger and impartial EC.

Led by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, a 13-member delegation of the party would have a views-exchange meeting with President Abdul Hamid around 4:30pm at the Bangabhaban today.

Party sources said Khaleda would put forward her proposal for the formation of the new EC and would also talk about election-time government. The party was likely to suggest names for the members of a search committee for the EC formation.

It wants a five member search committee.

BNP sources said the party might propose 10 names for the committee and three of them would be for the chief of the search committee post. The party would suggest an appellate division judge, a former bureaucrat, a woman, and a former vice-chancellor of a public university to be made members of the committee.

A senior BNP leader seeking anonymity said, “If talks move sincerely and the president asked names for the CEC [chief election commissioner] and others [commissioners], the party will propose the names. Otherwise we will propose only the names for the search committee.”

The strategy and the names were finalised during a late night meeting of the party high ups at the Gulshan office of Khaleda.

Khaleda might place a written statement before the president urging him to take initiatives so that a political consensus could be reached on the EC formation and election-time government issues.

Political parties have been laying emphasis on the formation of a competent new EC which would conduct the next general election scheduled to be held in 2019. Members of the civil society and political analysts stressed the need for forming a neutral EC which could help avoid a possible political crisis in future.

Political analysts said the formation of the new EC would, to some extent, show the sign whether the next general election would be free, fair, impartial and all inclusive.

“It's a good initiative that the president has taken to hold talks with different political parties. Only a good outcome can make the initiative successful,” former election commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Shakhawat Hossain told The Daily Star.

The BNP and other political parties have already welcomed the president' initiative and expressed hope that he would be able to play his due role in forming a stronger EC.

The BNP yesterday called for an independent EC to be formed with the consent of all political parties.

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi at a press conference at the party's Nayapaltan office said, “People hope that the EC will be impartial and independent which will work ignoring the evil intentions of the government … .

“We will ask the president to form an Election Commission on which all political parties can rely.”

The BNP, which has been demanding the holding of general election under a non-party administration since 2011, has taken the issue very seriously, said party insiders.

The BNP-led alliance and most other political parties had boycotted the January 5, 2014, national election as their demand was not met. The alliance is still demanding the same, but the ruling Awami League and its allies refused to entertain such demands citing constitution obligation.

On the talks, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said their dialogue would be based on Khaleda's recent proposal for the EC formation.

On November 18, Khaleda rolled out a 13-point proposal for the EC's formation which included forming a search committee on the basis of consensus among all registered political parties or the ones that had representation in parliament at different times since the country's independence.

The committee would pick the chief election commissioner and four commissioners, Khaleda had said.

The four-year tenure of Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad-led EC, which earned widespread criticism for its alleged failure to hold free, fair and peaceful elections, would expire in February.

It held a general election in 2014 which the BNP-led alliance boycotted. It held city corporation, municipality, and upazila parishad elections that were marred by violence and irregularities.

While forming the Kazi Rakib-led EC, then president Zillur Rahman consulted 23 political parties. Five parties had proposed forming a search committee, while four suggested enacting a law that could be followed for such appointments.

Zillur finally appointed an Appellate Division judge as the head of a four-member search committee to recommend names for the EC in 2012.

That committee, after screening, short-listed 10 people. Later, Zillur picked five and formed the EC on February 9, 2012.