The Election Commission (EC) has decided in principle to introduce same penalties for violating electoral code of conduct in all local body elections as there are different penalties for same offences in Upazila Parishad, City Corporation, Municipal and Union Parishad polls.
Besides, if any such offence is found true after the local body polls, the LGRD ministry can remove the representative from the post as per the EC’s recommendation.
Election Commissioner Mohammad Abu Hafiz told the Dhaka Tribune that there were many inconsistencies in the local government electoral laws and procedures and there were different types of penalties for same offence in different local body polls.
He also said the commission asked its legal wing to remove all inconsistency in the local body electoral laws and make same penalties for same offences.
According to the proposals, if any representative of a local body provides wrong or incorrect information in their affidavit, the commission can recommend the ministry to cancel the post.
However, the EC has no power to recommend about the matter as per the laws except municipal polls. As per the existing laws, if any offence proves after polls, the matter will be sorted in court.
EC officials said there were different penalties, like two-years, five-years and seven-year imprisonment, for same offences in different elections for violating electoral laws.
As per the upazila parishad laws, a minimum six-month to two year imprisonment with Tk10,000 fine had been set for violating electoral laws. The commission asked its legal wing to include this provision in other local body elections.
The commission has added the fine of Tk50,000 with six-month to five-year imprisonment for holding any election meeting, procession before 32-hour and 64-hour after the start of the polling, as per the proposals.
