Leaders of different political parties stressed on non-politicisation of state organs at “Janatar Ishtehar (people’s manifesto),” a countrywide pre-election campaign.
State organs like law enforcing agencies, judiciary, election commission, anti-corruption commission etc should be non-politicised and run independently, they stated at the session held at the Abdul Khalek Auditorium in Barisal city yesterday.
The leaders from prominent political parties along with representatives of local government and development organisations participated in the dialogue.
They opined that activeness of parliament does not depend solely on the presence rate of parliament members.
They called for revising the article-70 of the constitution which says “A person elected as a member of Parliament at an election at which he was nominated as a candidate by a political party shall vacate his seat if he resigns from that party or votes in Parliament against the party,” for the sake of democracy.
CARE Bangladesh, Action Aid and Daily Jugantor organised the programme.
The campaign aims to capture the voices of people from grassroots and influence the political parties for incorporating citizens’ demand into their election manifesto, said the organisers.
The participants told people wanted to see the local government bodies turning autonomous, and democracy being practiced inside the political parties.
They want to see these changes in real, not only written in the constitution or manifestos, they added.
The speakers hoped that the dialogue would contribute in developing their manifesto ahead of the national election which is to be held in a few months.
The speakers said there was an inextricable relation among the unbalanced regional development, the cycle of poverty in the country and democracy.
They said it was a continuous process where citizens’ participation plays the key role.
They stressed on allotting sufficient budget in accord with the demand of the grass root population for a balanced development in the rural regions.
Area, population, and regional characteristics should be kept in consideration while allotting fund for regional development, they said.
They shed light on taking preventive measures to cope with climate change to shrink loss of lives and properties, especially in the disaster-prone southern region of the country.
Advocate Mojibor Rahman Sarwar, city BNP president and lawmaker, Advocate Talukdar Md Yunus, district AL secretary, Advocate Shawkat Hossain Hiron, city AL president and former BCC (Barisal City Corporation) Mayor, were present among others.
