Civil society members on Wednesday warned that security lapses and weak accountability could put the 13th Jatiya Sangsad elections at risk, scheduled for February 12 next year as the Election Commission allegedly ignored key reform proposals.
They said that the interim government-formed Electoral Reform Commission recommended reforms to make the Representation of the People Order and the code of conduct for political parties and candidates more democratic and accountable.
Many key proposals were excluded from the revised legal framework, they said.
The observations came at a roundtable reviewing the progress of electoral reforms, held at the CIRDAP Auditorium in the capital and organised by SHUJAN—Citizens for Good Governance.
Most members of the Electoral Reform Commission were present at the event.
Presenting the keynote, SHUJAN executive chief and former ERC chief Badiul Alam Majumder said that the revised RPO ignored a key recommendation to form a three-member panel in each constituency for nominating party candidates.
He also said that the revised RPO did not bring registered political parties under the Right to Information Act, 2009.
Other ERC recommendations left out of the revised RPO included reinstating a provision requiring a minimum three-year involvement with a political party for nomination aspirants; allowing legal action against election commissioners for breaching their constitutional oath; empowering the EC to scrutinise candidates’ election expenses; and cancellation of candidacies for misreporting; and barring habitual loan defaulters from contesting polls.
Badiul further said that although the revised RPO disqualified parties with affiliated organisations locally and abroad, the Election Commission took no action against parties violating the provision.
The EC revised the RPO and the code of conduct from early to mid-November in preparation for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Centre for Policy Dialogue Economist Debapriya Bhattacharya distinguished fellow expressed concern over the security situation during and after the polls.
He urged the authorities to recover looted weapons from police stations during the July 2024 uprising, seize smuggled arms, and strictly control election expenditure by candidates.
‘Given these security concerns, the Election Commission’s responsibility has increased manifold,’ he cautioned, adding that the EC’s failure to adopt key reform recommendations raised serious doubts about its ability to conduct a credible election.
SHUJAN vice-president Justice MA Matin chaired the roundtable.
Former ERC members Mir Nadia Nivin, Sadik Al Arman, Jasmine Tully and Md Abdul Alim, along with SHUJAN representatives Zubair Nahid and Zannatul Nahar, also spoke.
