A parliamentary watchdog is apparently in favour of amending two sections of the Representation of the People Order 1972 as those debars candidates from contesting in general elections if they have business contract with the government or defaulted utility bills.
In a meeting at the parliament building on Tuesday, the standing committee on law ministry discussed sections 12(1)K and 12(1)N of the RPO, that talked about business contracts and utility bill defaults respectively.
Fazle Rabbi Miah, chairman of the committee, told the Dhaka Tribune that the watchdog was yet to make final recommendations on the two sections and had assigned Law Minister Shafique Ahmed to talk to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in this regard.
The bill was discussed on Tuesday and also on Sunday, but the MPs could not finalise their recommendations.
The committee held the discussion after receiving a letter from Awami League lawmaker Enamul Haque. The letter sought the committee’s intervention in dropping or amending section 12(1)K so that MPs could do business with the government.
Enamul Haque is the owner of the Ena Properties Limited which has inked a deal with the housing and public works ministry for the construction of flats in Uttara.
“My opinion is [that] section 12(1)K has been incorporated in the RPO in 1972. The scenario of 1972 and that of 2013 are not the same. So, this section should be changed,” Fazle Rabbi Miah told the Dhaka Tribune after the meeting.
“[But] changing that particular section of the RPO is a problem because it was incorporated by the Bangabandhu government” he said.
However, the Election Commission officials, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, presented a paper opposing changes to section 12(1)(K).
They said allowing MPs to sign business contracts with the government would definitely be a “conflict of interests.”
On Tuesday though, the watchdog mainly sat to discuss the Representation of the People (amendment) Bill 2013, meant to strip the war criminals of their right to contest polls.
Meeting sources said member Fajilatun Nessa Bappy at the commit tee’s Sunday meeting suggested that section 12(1)N that disqualifies candidates for defaulting utility bills, should be dropped.
She said there had been many cases in the past where the candidates paid the utility bills but the departments or banks concerned did not register the payments.
“So, scrapping their nomination papers for the departments’ faults is not acceptable at all; this is injustice,” Bappy said.
Most of the members of the committee agreed with her and spoke in favour of dropping the section.
“We think cancellation of the nomination paper for defaulting utility bills is not justified,” said the committee chairman.
He said the scrapping of parliament membership of Jatiya Party lawmaker ABM Abul Kashem for defaulting telephone bill was an “injustice.”
Fazle Rabbi Miah said the committee would meet again soon to finalise its recommendations on the two sections of the RPO.
