EC may get power to scrap polls after results

The law ministry has agreed to the Election Commission's request to have the power to cancel an election even after the issuance of a gazette notification on results.

The commission had proposed that the EC be able to cancel an election, provided complaints made against the polls were proved to be true through probes.

"The RPO [Representation of the People Order] does not give the power to do what is required once the gazette has been issued. We made the proposal so that the EC has the power to do something even after the announcement of the official results," Election Commissioner Rashida Sultana said yesterday.

She said that the law ministry representative argued that section 91 of the RPO gave the commission the power to cancel elections. "But we made our arguments and they agreed on that issue."

The amendment proposal will not be discarded during the law ministry vetting, said Rashida.

It will be sent to the Cabinet Division before being placed as a bill in parliament.

On another amendment proposal sent to the law ministry, Rashida said that the law ministry said some voters being allowed to vote when their fingerprints do not match with the ones in the EC database need not be included in the proposals.

"Representatives of the law ministry said these powers could be given to the election officials through rules," she said while talking to reporters at her EC office.

Now, the commission issues circulars to give the presiding officers and assistant presiding officers the power to allow up to 1 percent of the voters in a polling booth to cast their votes via EVMs after fingerprint mismatch.

A few months ago, the EC asked the law ministry to include this in the RPO, the law that regulates the national election.

On August 8 last year, the commission sent the proposals for amendments to the RPO. As the law ministry's Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division did not respond, the EC wrote again seeking an answer on September 28 and then again on October 10.

The EC on November 27 said the law ministry was yet to respond to its letters regarding the proposed amendments.