A legal notice has been sent to the Election Commission (EC) to reconsider its decision of rejecting the application of Gono Songhoti Andolon to be a registered political party.
Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua sent the notice by post on behalf of the party’s Chief Coordinator Zonayed Saki.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Law
Secretary and Deputy Secretary of EC have been made respondents in the notice. The notice said, “Zonayed Saki, Chief Coordinator of Gono Songhoti Andolon, submitted an application on December 31, 2017 to the Election Commission to register them as a political party. On April 8, 2018, the EC said in a letter that there was no clear explanation about the two regulations in the application. The party was asked to submit the explanation within 15 days. In response the EC’s letter, the party submitted the application with all the required documents and the explanation.”
Zonayed Saki said, “We hoped that EC would register our party. But we could not know about our party’s fate even after contacting the EC again and again. Finally on June 19, 2018, the EC said in a notice that the application of Gono Songhoti Andolon was rejected as its Constitution is contrary to the Section 90(C)(1)(E) of the Representation of the People Order (RPO).
The Coordinator said also, “We think that the EC’s responsibility is to help the political parties who are eager to participate in the election. But sadly it is against the growth in view of the conditions given by the Election Commission to be a registered party. However, under the existing laws, we applied for registration by fulfilling all the requirements.”
“If there is any inconsistency in our application then the EC could tell us to amend that. But they grabbed the right to participate in the election. EC should help the political parties to flourish and to expand. We are ready to amend our Constitution.”
