EC gets it out from law ministry
Annoyed by the law ministry's delay in returning to the Election Commission (EC) the vetted draft electoral rolls rules, two of the commissioners yesterday rushed to the ministry and forced the officials there to release the file.
The EC's bold initiative finally cleared the way for promulgating the electoral rolls rules, which had been stalling for three weeks due to the law ministry's procrastination.
Returning to the EC Secretariat premises with the vetted draft rules in the afternoon, the two election commissioners --- Muhammed Sohul Hussain and Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain --- told journalists that publication of area wise draft voter lists had been delayed because the vetted draft had not been returned to the commission earlier by the law ministry.
"We went there to expedite the vetting of the draft electoral rolls rules because promulgation of the rules is urgent," Election Commissioner Sakhawat Hussain told reporters in his office.
Stressing the need for immediate promulgation of the rules, Election Commissioner Sohul Hussain said the entire job of publishing draft voter lists had been stalling due to the law ministry's procrastination.
Both election commissioners said they also met the law adviser in the ministry secretariat to clarify the provisions in the proposed rules if needed, since the draft rules are absolutely new and different from the previous voter listing rules.
The commission might issue a gazette notification today promulgating the rules, which will give legitimacy to the procedures used for the ongoing activities for preparing the national voter list, and will clear the way for publishing drafts of area wise voter lists.
The EC on January 21 sent the draft electoral rolls rules to the law ministry for vetting and requested the ministry to send it back to the EC as soon as possible, so the EC may promulgate the rules.
But the ministry failed to act as quickly as the EC's expectation despite senior EC officials' repeated prodding over the last four days, sources in the EC Secretariat said.
Without the rules, the EC could not publish area wise draft voter lists for four city corporations and seven municipalities for holding the long over due polls to those local government bodies in April.
Under the circumstances, the EC yesterday morning decided to meet Law Adviser AF Hassan Ariff in his office in Bangladesh Secretariat in a desperate bid to expedite the vetting of the draft electoral rolls rules, the sources added.
At the meeting top officials of the law ministry explained the delay saying that they have a huge pile of work pending. They requested the commissioners to go back to the EC Secretariat assuring them that the ministry would send the vetted draft of the rules to them as soon as possible, meeting sources said.
But the commissioners refused to leave the law ministry premises without the vetted draft of the rules.
Staying put in the ministry secretariat for about two hours, the election commissioners convinced the law adviser and his top officials of the urgency of having the rules vetted.
"We stayed put in the ministry so we could bring back the vetted draft electoral rolls rules with us," Sakhawat said.
Talking to reporters on the EC Secretariat premises, Sohul said once the rules are promulgated the entire procedure for preparing the voter list with photographs will get legality.
The EC began field level work of preparing the voter list with photographs on August 11 of last year, a day after Electoral Rolls Ordinance 2007 had been promulgated empowering the commission to formulate the rules for voter listing.
However, the EC did not formulate the rules last year although in the electoral roadmap announced by itself on July 15 of that year the commission had promised to start publishing area wise draft voter lists from October of the same year. The EC could not begin publishing the lists in October 2007 since it waited for the first day of the current year for a batch of new voters who became 18 years old on that date.
Meanwhile, the EC decided to hold in April of this year the long over due polls to the city corporations of Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal, and Sylhet, and to the municipalities of Fulabaria, Manikganj, Sripur, Shariatpur, Golapganj, Sitakunda, and Cox's Bazar.
The army, which has been working at the field level for preparing the voter lists, already handed over to the EC for publication the draft voter lists for the four city corporations and seven municipalities.
The EC also completed its preparations for publishing the draft voter lists, to allow voters to inspect the lists and to file complaints and claims, if they have any. Revising authorities, who will be appointed by the EC, will settle the claims and objections, if any filed.
Since the date of publication of the draft lists, it will require about a month to finalise the lists. If the EC cannot start publishing the draft lists this week, it might become difficult for the EC to complete the preparation by March 20 for holding the polls to the city corporations and municipalities in April.
On April 4 of last year Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda met the then law adviser in the latter's office and urged the caretaker government to lift the prevailing restrictions on 'indoor politics', so the EC could hold electoral reform talks with political parties. The caretaker government finally allowed 'indoor politics' only in the capital on September 10 of last year.
Asked whether the EC created a precedent by visiting the law adviser for expediting the vetting of draft electoral rolls rules, Election Commissioner Sakhawat said, "We don't have time to think about any protocol. We are in a state of emergency and carrying out urgent work for the state. We will go anywhere to achieve our goals no matter what the critics think."
He said had the EC invited the law ministry officials to discuss the draft electoral rolls rules, it would have been delayed more.
The election commissioners also discussed with the law adviser a draft ordinance for setting up a national registration authority, which will supervise issuance of national identity cards.
"The law adviser assured us that an ordinance to set up a national registration authority will be promulgated as soon as possible," Sakhawat told the reporters.
Currently, temporary national identity cards are being prepared simultaneously with the voter lists with photographs, but only persons eligible to become voters are getting the cards now.
Once the national registration authority is set up, it will issue national identity cards to all citizens.
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