The Election Reform Commission has recommended that political parties should not have any subsidiary organizations.
The commission said that political parties’ student, teacher, and labor organizations, regardless of whether they are termed as affiliate or fraternal organizations, should be prohibited.
On Wednesday, the Election System Reform Commission submitted its report to Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus.
The commission is headed by Badiul Alam Majumdar.
The report includes several recommendations concerning the electoral system.
In the section on political party registration, the commission made the following recommendations:
A new party should be required to have offices in 10% of districts and 5% of sub-districts (upazilas/thanas) with a minimum of 5,000 members.
Parties must prepare a list of their general members, publish it on their website, and update it annually.
Anyone convicted under the ICT (International Crimes Tribunal) Act should be ineligible to become a general member or a committee member of any party.
Individuals accused of serious human rights violations (such as extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, inhumane torture, attacks on journalists or human rights activists, or money laundering) should be ineligible to become general members or committee members of any party if a charge sheet is accepted against them under a special law created for such cases in ICT courts.
All committees, from local to national levels, should be elected by a secret ballot of general members.
General members should create a panel of three candidates for each parliamentary constituency through a secret ballot, from which the party will provide the final nomination.
Members must contribute a minimum annual fee of 100 taka.The maximum donation from an individual should be limited to 5 million taka, and all such donations must be processed through banking systems and reflected in the donor’s income tax return.
To ensure transparency, registered parties must submit audited statements of their income and expenditures.
Political parties must not have subsidiary organizations, such as student, teacher, or labor unions, or any other fraternal organizations under any name.
Political parties must not have foreign branches under any name.
To receive a party nomination for parliamentary elections, a person must have been a party member for at least three years.
Party registration must be renewed every five years.
The rule of deregistering a party for failing to contest two consecutive elections should be abolished.
