Special Correspondent :
The Election Commission, which invited opinions from political parties and observation groups on polls observation guideline targeting the next general election, has received so far a lukewarm response from the parties concerned.
The Commission intends to prepare a draft proposal with a view to bringing some changes in such guideline.
The EC earlier had asked different quarters, including political parties, Election Monitoring Organizations, journalists and civil society, for their consents over the issue.
Such consents were invited through the EC website on May 17. But none of the 40 registered political parties, including Awami League and BNP, did send their consents while the last date expired on May 24. Interestingly, both the major parties earlier had registered their objection against different election observation teams.
According to the EC, only three election observation organizations gave their consents. These are Election Working Group, Jatiya Nirbachon Parjabekkhon Parishad and Ain Sohayota Kendro.
“Apart from three observatory groups, no political party gave their opinions on the polls observation policy,” EC Public Relations Director SM Asaduzzaman confirmed.
An executive body member of AL preferring not to be named said the ruling party is not interested to give any new suggestion over the matter. “So far we know, the draft prepared by the EC is almost like the old one. It was thoroughly revised in 2009. Now it is more or less the same.”
BNP’s Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi cleared his stance over the issue saying that his party was not ‘formally informed’ of the consent they sought. “However, we will give our views about it during the dialogue supposed to be arranged by the EC, he said.”
Officials concerned said the EC has taken initiatives to formulate guidelines for the observers in order to ensure transparency, credibility and impartiality of all elections held in the country through neutral, independent, and conscientious observation of the electoral process.
The election observation issue was first included by the EC by amending the RPO-1972 (Representation of the People Order) in 2008. The registration of observation organizations started on the eve of the ninth parliamentary election besides formulating a guideline for them.
Later, the guideline was amended in 2010 by the EC extending the validity period from one year to five years for registration. The EC during the caretaker government published a list of 138 observer organisations.
The list was amended in 2013 by curtailing the number of organizations to 120 whose registration duration ended in 2016. The EC led by Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed did not gave them a chance to renew their registration, but extended their duration for one year, more which expired in January this year.
The EC headed by KM Nurul Huda on March 28 extended the time for another six months.
The Election Commission, which invited opinions from political parties and observation groups on polls observation guideline targeting the next general election, has received so far a lukewarm response from the parties concerned.
The Commission intends to prepare a draft proposal with a view to bringing some changes in such guideline.
The EC earlier had asked different quarters, including political parties, Election Monitoring Organizations, journalists and civil society, for their consents over the issue.
Such consents were invited through the EC website on May 17. But none of the 40 registered political parties, including Awami League and BNP, did send their consents while the last date expired on May 24. Interestingly, both the major parties earlier had registered their objection against different election observation teams.
According to the EC, only three election observation organizations gave their consents. These are Election Working Group, Jatiya Nirbachon Parjabekkhon Parishad and Ain Sohayota Kendro.
“Apart from three observatory groups, no political party gave their opinions on the polls observation policy,” EC Public Relations Director SM Asaduzzaman confirmed.
An executive body member of AL preferring not to be named said the ruling party is not interested to give any new suggestion over the matter. “So far we know, the draft prepared by the EC is almost like the old one. It was thoroughly revised in 2009. Now it is more or less the same.”
BNP’s Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi cleared his stance over the issue saying that his party was not ‘formally informed’ of the consent they sought. “However, we will give our views about it during the dialogue supposed to be arranged by the EC, he said.”
Officials concerned said the EC has taken initiatives to formulate guidelines for the observers in order to ensure transparency, credibility and impartiality of all elections held in the country through neutral, independent, and conscientious observation of the electoral process.
The election observation issue was first included by the EC by amending the RPO-1972 (Representation of the People Order) in 2008. The registration of observation organizations started on the eve of the ninth parliamentary election besides formulating a guideline for them.
Later, the guideline was amended in 2010 by the EC extending the validity period from one year to five years for registration. The EC during the caretaker government published a list of 138 observer organisations.
The list was amended in 2013 by curtailing the number of organizations to 120 whose registration duration ended in 2016. The EC led by Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed did not gave them a chance to renew their registration, but extended their duration for one year, more which expired in January this year.
The EC headed by KM Nurul Huda on March 28 extended the time for another six months.
