Badiul Alam Majumdar, economist and Secretary of Citizens for Good Governance (SHUJAN), has raised concerns over Election Commission’s (EC) handling of electoral reforms, saying it has overlooked several crucial recommendations.
He pointed out that EC has not amended Representation of the People Order (RPO) to require certification of election fairness and acceptance before publishing results in the gazette within 48 hours of election.
Majumdar also said, “EC has also taken no initiative to form monitoring committees or oversee election expenditures for multiple constituencies to prevent and control irregularities in campaign spending.”
He further noted that while candidates are required to submit copies of their five-year income tax returns with nomination papers, the RPO currently mandates only submission of the latest tax year’s return. In addition, the provision preventing a person from contesting in multiple constituencies has been ignored in the RPO.
Speaking at a roundtable on electoral reform progress organised by SHUJAN at the CIRDAP auditorium on Topkhana Road in Dhaka, Majumdar said, “The Election System Reform Commission had worked on 18 priority areas, making several recommendations to ensure independent and credible elections. Although a few suggestions were accepted, many important proposals were overlooked by the EC.”
He further said, recommendations such as requiring political parties to renew registration every five years or canceling registration if they fail to contest two consecutive elections were partially accepted, but crucial reforms, like increasing the threshold of signatures required for independent candidates from 1 percent of voters to 500, were ignored.
