AL okays system for grassroots
The Awami League (AL) yesterday finalised its draft policy to seek names of the possible candidates for the next national election from its grassroots level committees.
The local AL bodies will now finalise a five-member panel of candidates for each constituency through holding an open ballot. The party has recently put this provision in its constitution to get registered with the Election Commission.
The AL presidium, the highest policymaking body, last night finalised the draft, which will be approved by the AL Central Working Committee (ALCWC) within a week.
"In our draft ward, union, municipality, thana, upazila and district committee members will be involved in selecting party candidates in each constituency through holding their extended meetings," AL acting general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam told reporters after the meeting held at AL acting president Zillur Rahman's Gulshan residence.
Issues including AL chief Sheikh Hasina's election participation, upazila polls, re-demarcation of electoral constituencies, among others, were on the meeting agenda.
Ashraf said ALCWC will finally define which unit would be treated as grassroots and what would be the process of giving nomination.
If there are more than five candidates in each constituency, open votes will be held to elect five and AL central parliamentary board would finalise the nomination, meeting sources said.
Ashraf said nomination aspirants will have to buy nomination form at Tk 5,000 from the central committee and submit it to the grassroots level committee.
He added they would give nomination based on the recommendations from the grassroots to give party tickets to competent candidates. "The Awami League wants to select candidates based on one-member-one-vote theory like US presidential candidate nomination process," he added.
The meeting chaired by Zillur observed that there is no bar in accordance with the existing laws to Sheikh Hasina's participation in the poll.
"She'll return to Bangladesh in the first week of next month and under her leadership Awami League will take part in the election. There is no confusion about it," it observed.
Ashraf said, "The government has no jurisdiction to decide who will able to be candidate or not."
The meeting reiterated its demand that the EC should hold the upazila election after a reasonable time gap.
"If held within a week gap, both the national and upazila elections could be foiled," he said, urging the government and EC to be "logical".
Even 58 days within the election, neither candidates nor voters know their constituency, the AL leader said. He asked EC to resolve the complexities centring re-demarcation of the electoral constituencies before November 2.
He said if the court gives judgement in favour of the re-demarcation, they would welcome it.
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