After a month-long drama centring the proposal on scrapping article 91E of the RPO, the Election Commission yesterday decided to keep the provision that gives it the authority to cancel candidature for violating electoral laws.
But one election commissioner told the Dhaka Tribune that he had no idea about the latest decision and that his opinion in this regard had not been sought.
The EC informed the law ministry about its decision immediately. It had earlier decided to send its proposal for scrapping article 91E from the Representation of the People Order to the ministry for vetting.
In a press statement yesterday, SM Asaduzzaman, director of public relations at the EC Secretariat, said the commission had decided not to send the proposal to the law ministry for scrapping article 91E as respect to the reactions and opinions against it.
Commissioner Md Shah Newaz yesterday told reporters that they had decided not to proceed with the proposal because of reactions and oppositions from different sectors.
“We have all agreed on retaining article 91E in the RPO, respecting the reactions and objections of the political parties and all,” he said.
Asked about the decisions of two commissioners who have been away, Newaz said Commissioner Mohammad Abu Hafiz had already given his consent to retaining the article in writing before going abroad and confirmed it again over telephone yesterday.
Commissioner Abdul Mobarak had also given his consent over phone, Newaz said.
However, when contacted Mobarak told the Dhaka Tribune that he had been unaware of the decision. He also denied having received any phone call asking for his opinion on the matter yesterday.
Sources at the EC Secretariat said the commission had held several meetings before making the decision to retain article 91E in the RPO.
Election commissioners had different opinions over scrapping the article: Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad, and commissioners Md Shah Newaz and Mohammad Abu Hafiz wanted to keep the article while commissioners Abdul Mobarak and Zabed Ali were against it.
The EC had been facing widespread criticism for a month from political parties, civil society and media for deciding to scrap article 91E.
On July 30, the CEC clarified that the article had been self-contradictory, meaningless and inapplicable.
If cancelling candidatures left just one candidate, the EC should re-fix the polls schedule as per article 17 of the RPO, which is discriminating against the lone candidate, he explained.
He said if the EC re-announced the schedule, the disqualified candidates would once again get the chance to participate in the election as per the law, which again contradicted with the other articles of the RPO.
The EC had decided to scrap article 91E from the RPO on July 28 after three days of sending the draft RPO to the law ministry.