The Election Commission has decided to consider the requests that the political parties have placed in connection with the first ever partisan municipality polls slated for December 30.
Yesterday, ruling Awami League requested the Election Commission (EC) to allow lawmakers to participate in electioneering.
On the other hand, main political opposition BNP, which does not have any representation in parliament now, has urged the commission not to allow that.
As per the new code of conduct of the elections, ministers and persons holding equivalent posts, city corporation mayors and members of parliament are not allowed to participate in election activities and campaigns.
On Saturday, following requests from BNP and ruling alliance partners Workers Party of Bangladesh and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSaD) to extend the election deadline, the EC said that it was not possible to consider any requests.
The last date for submission and withdrawal of nomination papers is December 3. These parties said they needed more time to scrutinise and award nomination to candidates.
Yesterday, delegations of the Awami League, BNP and Jatiya Party went to the EC and placed their proposal.
Main opposition in parliament Jatiya Party has requested the commission to extend the nomination submission deadline by 10 days, while the BNP said it needed at least 15 days more.
Until the government amended the existing municipality elections law, local government elections were necessarily non-partisan, meaning political parties could not directly nominate candidates; they could only extend support for certain contestants.
However, this year, only the elections for the mayoral candidates of these municipalities will be partisan; the fight for the general and reserved female councillor posts will be non-partisan as before.
Emerging from a meeting with the chief election commissioner, Awami League delegation chief Mahbub-ul Alam Hanif said: “As the MPs have no executive power and they enjoy government benefits, they have the constitutional right to take part in electioneering.
Meanwhile, after meeting the CEC, BNP said that the government and the Election Commission’s image will be tarnished if lawmakers and ministers take part in campaign and influence the polls.
Chief of the BNP delegation, senior leader M Osman Farruk, told reporters that they had requested the EC to create a level-playing field by playing a role in releasing all the detained leaders, including acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
Local government expert Zarina Rahman Khan said: “The elections will be partisan. The lawmakers also belong to political parties. So, the EC should think whether existing laws allow them to participate in electioneering.”
Yesterday, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad said: “We have listened to what everyone [political parties] have to say. When registered political parties raise any demands, we have to consider them with due importance. We will make our decisions public after discussing the issues with the other commissioners.”
One provision of the new set of rules has been drawing debates off late – the rule that political parties will not be able to nominate more than one candidate for the mayor of a particular municipality.
Critics are asking what will happen if the nomination of a candidate gets cancelled during EC scrutiny? The political party that nominated the candidate will have no representation in that municipality.
“This is a great opportunity for the Election Commission to rectify past mistakes and show that it can hold free and fair elections. It has the autonomy and the power to do it; the only thing required is will,” said noted political scientist Ataur Rahman.