A parliamentary watchdog on Thursday recommended dropping of a section of the parent electoral law allowing aspirants to contest the elections from any political party without being its member for three years.
To stop “horse trading in the nomination race,” the Election Commission in 2008 inserted a provision in the Representation of the People Order, 1972, the law for parliamentary polls, stipulating that a person must serve as a primary member of a political party for three years to be eligible for getting nomination.
While examining the RPO (amendment) Bill, 2013, the parliamentary standing committee on law ministry said the section had been “ultra vires” to the constitution.
“If an independent candidate can contest the polls without any condition, why the members of the political parties should wait for three years?” Fazle Rabbi Miah, the committee chairman, said after a meeting at the parliament building.
“So, we have recommended dropping section 12 (J) [of the RPO],” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
If the House passes the bill in line with the recommendation, the moneyed businessmen can contest in the upcoming polls without getting involved in politics even for a day.
Even a political leader can join other party ahead of the polls and contest the elections.
But the standing committee did not recommend dropping section 12 (f) of the RPO according to which retired public servants must serve as a member of the political parties for three years after their retirement.
At a dialogue with the Election Commission, Jatiya Party chief HM Ershad in 2011 had that section 12 (J) of the RPO be dropped. Another Jatiya Party MP Mujibul Haque from Kishoreganj tabled a private member bill demanding that the ban be lifted.
Many political observers then said the Jatiya Party had made the proposal with a hope to bring some BNP leaders into its fold if the latter boycotted the next general elections.
The government on September 30 tabled the RPO amendment bill to disqualify the convicted war criminals from contesting the polls and change 17 other sections of the original RPO. The bill did not propose changing section 12 (J), but the standing committee has recommended for its deletion.
Former chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda said: “I do not understand why the standing committee made the recommendations, though the Election Commission has not proposed any change to the section. We inserted the section to stop horse trading in the nomination process. The moneyed men used to buy nominations from the parties paying donations.”
He told the Dhaka Tribune that all political parties had agreed with the commission to insert the provision into the RPO. “If it remained constitutional for so long, how did it become unconstitutional overnight?”
He added that the section had been embodied to save the political parties from intrusion of the businessmen and other sections.
Nazim Kamran Chowdhury, a former legislator and political analyst, told the Dhaka Tribune that dropping of the section would not bring any change in the political arena in future.
“I think this section is undemocratic. If any BNP leader joins the Jatiya Party ahead of the polls, the local people will certainly resist them. So this sort of thinking, if any, will not work,” he said.
