Attorney General Mahbubey Alam yesterday told the High Court that if the RPO provision of declaring lone candidates elected unopposed was held illegal, all the 154 lawmakers of current parliament would lose validity in the eyes of law.
“But the provision is not illegal or unconstitutional,” he said adding that even two US presidents had been elected uncontested.
Mahbubey Alam, assisted by deputy attorney generals Ekramul Hoque and Al-Amin Sarker, placed his arguments on behalf of the government replying to the High Court ruling questioning the Representation of the People Order, 1972 provision.
The top law officer of the country also questioned the maintainability of the writ petition filed by Jatiya Party Vice-Chairman Khandker Abdul Salam. He said though the posts of 154 MPs were challenged, the lawmakers had not been made respondents. At that time, the bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Khurshid Alam Sarkar told him that the RPO provision had been questioned in the petition.
In reply, the attorney general said a vacuum would be created if the provision was declared illegal by the court. He said such provision was present in many countries of the world.
The petition was not a public interest litigation rather filed to serve a malafide intention, he claimed.
Mahbubey drew the attention of the court on the destructive movement of the BNP-Jamaat alliances ahead of the January 5 election and on the election day.
He mentioned that amicus curie Rokanuddin Mahmud had rightly pointed out that an unconstitutional force would have assumed the power had the election not been held on January 5.
The attorney general said: “The provision in no way contrary to the constitution. If someone does not want to be a candidate, he cannot be forced to do so. The court did not declare the 1986 general election illegal, though it was not accepted by the people. Later, election again took place in 1988. The election held on February 15, 1996 was also not accepted for which another election was held the same year. But the February 15 election cannot be declared illegal.”
In his written reply, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said as some political parties had utterly failed to frustrate the 10th parliamentary election through their subversive activities, “they now have set up a devise to frustrate the result of the election by filing the writ petition.”
Musharraf said the political parties who did not participate in the election were to be blamed, not the government, for depriving the voters from exercising their right.
He said the election was held for keeping the constitutional continuity in running the country and to prevent any unconstitutional power from entering the political scenario.
Additional Attorney General Murad Reza, aided by Assistant Attorney General SK Shaifuzzaman, stood for the Law Ministry.
He said the petition had not been maintainable as it did not challenge the gazette notification of declaring the 154 candidates elected. Murad suggested the petitioner to go to his party leader Rawshan Ershad to raise concern in parliament.
