The High Court yesterday issued a ruling, asking why the RPO provision for declaring an uncontested candidate winner in parliamentary poll should not be held unconstitutional.
The bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Khurshid Alam Sarkar passed the order following a writ petition lodged on December 17 by Jatiya Party Vice-Chairman Khandker Abdus Salam.
It asked the cabinet secretary, law secretary, chief election commissioner and the Election Commission secretary to reply to the ruling within 10 days.
According to section 19(1) of the Representation of the People Order 1972, if there is only one valid candidate for election after scrutiny, or there is only one contesting candidate after withdrawal of nominations, the returning officer shall declare that candidate elected to the seat by a public notice.
Supreme Court lawyer Hassan MS Azim, who argued for the petitioner, told the court that the provision had been contrary to the constitution as it left the people, who were owners of all powers of the republic, with no option to express their views through voting
The section negated the guarantee of effective participation of the people through their elected representative in administration at all levels, he said.
“The provision also contradicts the constitution as it inherently possesses the scope of arbitrary and discriminatory use of the election process by the political parties and, thereby, get their choice of candidates declared by the Election Commission to have been elected avoiding participation of the people,” says the writ petition.
A total of 153 candidates became lawmakers without votes in the 10th parliamentary election held on January 5.
