Decision on making expats voters next week
The Election Commission (EC) will take a decision within next week whether the Bangladeshi expatriates will be made voters, Election Commissioner M Sohul Hussain said yesterday.
He, however, said related laws will have to be amended if the government agrees to make the expatriates voters.
“We couldn't discuss it with the government due to Sidr after we came back home from the UK. We'll discuss it with the chief adviser this week. We'll apprise him about how we want to accomplish the task. If the government agrees then the concerned laws will have to be changed,” Sohul told reporters at his office yesterday.
If a positive decision is taken in this regard, he said, a method will have to be sorted out how to make the expatriates voters.
Asked about the expatriates living in Saudi Arabia who submitted a memorandum to the CA during his recent Hajj tour demanding that they be made voters, Sohul said the EC has not yet seen the document.
“They also can be made voters… We want every expatriate to make voter, but that couldn't be done this time since our time and logistics are limited… At the beginning, we had been doing it as a token job,” he said.
About lifting the ban on politics, Sohul said they would ask the government for it whenever they would be ready and the government would decide how much to relax the ban.
Asked how the electioneering would be carried out during the city corporation elections if the ban on politics are not relaxed fully and early, he said it would not be a problem since the elections would be held in limited areas.
“The campaign would have to be done within the time whatever they will have… How can we ask the government to lift the ban early when we're not ready?” he said.
About enrolling the voters living in Bangladesh enclaves inside India, the Election Commissioner said they would run their voter-listing drive in the enclaves like Dahagram and Angarpota, where voter listing had always been done in the past.
“But, for other enclaves, discussions would have to take place between the governments of Bangladesh and India,” he said.
Sohul informed that the EC is going to start delimitating the voter areas from January 2008 using the Geographical Information System.
“Every location, from village to union to street, is identified in this system. So, it would be easier to do the job,” he said.
On holding electoral dialogue with BNP, Sohul said they would seek the High Court's direction as soon as it resumes with which faction of the party discussion could be held on the draft of electoral reforms.
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