Views of civil society, all stakeholders needed to enact law for EC formation: TIB
Transparency International Bangladesh today said it is necessary to finalise an important law such as the one on formation of Election Commission through analysing the details on the basis of the views of the civil society and other stakeholders.
"If the law is passed without the opinion and evaluation of the concerned stakeholders and civil society, its acceptability will be questioned and its effectiveness will not be ensured. Therefore, there is no alternative to passing the law on the basis of public opinion, giving utmost importance to public expectations," it said.
In a statement, TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman, demanded that the draft law be made available for evaluation to all immediately.
"The sudden step taken by the government regarding enacting of the law to form the Election Commission, reflecting the constitutional commitment and the long-standing expectations of the people, is positive," said Dr Iftekhar.
He also said according to media reports, the law proposes the formation of an Election Commission through a search committee as usual which is consistent with international experience.
But the details of what is in the draft law, apart from setting some general criteria for the search committee, are still unknown to stakeholders and civil society, reads the TIB statement.
Dr Iftekhar said, in particular, whether there will be a woman representative in the search committee, what will be the eligibility criteria of the two citizen representatives being mentioned in the committee, what will be the working procedure of the committee, whether the names proposed by the committee will be published or not are not clear.
He also said assurance of qualifications, skills, experience, neutrality and acceptability of the chief election commissioner and other election commissioners should be incorporated in the law.
"To this end, the draft law should be immediately released and finalised on the basis of the views of the concerned stakeholders and civil society. Otherwise, the possibility of forming a free, fair and acceptable Election Commission, which is widely expected by the people of the country, will be thwarted again," the statement said.
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