Desk Report,
EU pre-election observation team to arrive in mid-September
A pre-election observation team of the European Union (EU) is coming to Bangladesh in mid-September. They are coming to observe the preparations for the elections. Akhtar Ahmed, Senior Secretary of the Election Commission (EC) Secretariat, told reporters at the Election Building on Monday.
EU pre-election observation team to arrive in mid-September
The EC Secretary said that the EU pre-election observation team will consist of seven people, including three foreigners and four locals. The Election Commission has learned this through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The EC has not been informed in detail about this yet.
The specific date for the next national election has not yet been announced. However, the government has informed that the elections may be held in the first half of February. In a briefing yesterday, the EC Secretary also highlighted the various preparations of the EC for the elections. He said that the draft list of excluded voters will be published by August 10. This list will be finalized by August 31 after the settlement of claims and objections. According to the amended Voters List Act, the Election Commission will publish the voter list with a ‘cutout time’ after considering it logically. The Election Commission will decide on this issue depending on when the elections will be held.
Highlighting the progress of the electoral law reform, the EC Secretary said, “The EC has already received the amendments to the Parliamentary Constituency Delimitation Act and the amended ordinance of the Voters’ List Act. There was an amendment, we have received it. The EC has prepared drafts of the polling station establishment policy, foreign observer policy, and policy for journalists. The amendments to the National Election Law Representation of the People Order (RPO) and the code of conduct for political parties and candidates will be presented in the EC meeting next Thursday. The EC will try to complete the work of delimiting the parliamentary constituencies within this month. Apart from this, the training of officials is being taken forward little by little. The EC will complete the work of purchasing election materials by September 30.”
The EC Secretary said that there is a provision to submit the audit report of the income and expenditure of registered political parties to the EC by July 31. Out of 51 parties, 30 parties have submitted their accounts within the stipulated time. Fifteen parties have applied for an extension of time. One of the remaining six parties said that they got registered this year, so the provision of giving accounts this year will not apply to them. The remaining five parties have not submitted accounts. This will be reported to the commission. Further action will be taken as per the commission’s instructions.
After a meeting with the Chief Election Commissioner on Sunday, NCP leader Nasir Uddin Patwary said that the Election Commission has no backbone. When attention was drawn to this issue, the EC secretary said with some humor, “If I don’t have a backbone, how can I stand straight? This is number one. Number two is that it is a political statement, not my area. My place is an administrative matter. If you take the first answer in this regard, I am still standing straight before you. Please pray that I can stand like this.”
