Election Commission seeks power back to cancel polls

Election Commission

Dhaka, Jul 10 - The Election Commission (EC) has proposed to regain its authority to suspend or cancel the entire election results of a parliamentary constituency in the case of irregularities.

Besides, the Election Commission has taken several significant decisions ahead of the next national election. These include ensuring the voting rights of expatriate Bangladeshis through the postal balloting system and a firm decision never to use electronic voting machines (EVMs) in either parliamentary or local government elections.

The EC will also publish a draft demarcation of constituencies next week. It aims to complete the inclusion of fresh voters by August and has allowed some new political parties, who applied for registration, to submit necessary documents to complete their applications.

The decisions came from the commission’s six-hour meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin at the Nirbachan Bhaban in the city on Thursday.

Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) Abdul Fazal Md Sanaullah briefed reporters to raise the outcomes of the meeting.

He said the commission has proposed in the draft amendment of the Representation of the People Order (RPO) 1972 to get back their lost authority to stop the election result of an entire constituency, not only that of one or several polling stations marked by irregularities.

“Now we have the authority to cancel the election results of one or more polling stations in case of irregularities. What we lack is the authority to stop the entire constituency's election, which (that power) was taken away earlier. We’ve now proposed to get it back,” said Md Sanaullah.

This election commissioner expressed hope that the EC would get back the authority it previously enjoyed.

The proposal comes as part of the commission’s initiative to amend the Representation of the People Order (RPO) 1972 ahead of the next national election.

In 2023, ahead of the 12th parliamentary election, the then Awami League government amended the RPO, curtailing the EC’s authority to suspend or cancel the entire result of a constituency election — a move that drew strong criticism from opposition parties.

According to the existing RPO, the EC now can suspend the results of only those (one or more) polling stations where irregularities have been reported after the failure of law enforcement agencies to stop anomalies.

But the commission can’t suspend or cancel the entire election result of a constituency due to irregularities in one or some polling station.

The amendment came after the Election Commission cancelled the Gaibandha-5 parliamentary by-election due to irregularities.

Postal Balloting for Expats

The Election Commission took a decision that expatriate Bangladeshis will be able to cast their votes through the postal ballot system in the upcoming parliamentary election.

“The final decision was made over the votes of expatriate Bangladeshis. Inshallah the expatriates will vote this time. The voting system will be the postal balloting,” he said.

In the process of the out of country voting (OCV), Sanaullah said, an expatriate will require online registration first to exercise voting right through the postal balloting system in the election.

However, the EC is still assessing several postal balloting systems -- the normal postal ballot, blank postal ballot and postal ballot with symbols – to use a suitable postal balloting system in the next election.

Commission is considering to widen the election campaign period between the withdrawal of candidacy and the balloting date to three weeks instead of two weeks, he said.

A Development Project Proposal (DPP) involving Tk 48 crore has already been designed to make the postal balloting system effective in the upcoming national election.

Delimitation Decision

The election commissioner said the decision of draft delimitation of constituencies will be published next week as the issue is now at the final stage. “The delimitation issue is now in our final stage.. It will be made public next week,” said Sanaullah.

"We have referred it (the draft boundary) to the technical committee to look at its technicalities again. Hopefully, we will get it by next week," he added.

No objections were received from 221 constituencies during their demarcations, he said, adding that the number of parliamentary seats in Dhaka seats will not decline significantly due to the capital’s rapid population and voter growth.

The average number of voters per constituency nationwide is now between 418,000, while that in Dhaka is 422,000 voters per seat, he mentioned.

The EC now prioritises the number of voters over the population census in the demarcation process as the voter list is more reliable. “The voter list is 98–99% accurate and essentially a by-product of population figures,” he said.

No EVMs in Any Election

The commission has also decided that electronic voting machines (EVMs) will not be used in any future elections—including both parliamentary and local government polls.

“This is a final decision. EVMs will not be used in any upcoming election,” Sanaullah affirmed.

Fresh Voters

During a recent door-to-door campaign, the EC has collected information on around 44.66 lakh potential new voters and 21.32 lakh deceased voters.

“A supplementary voter list will be published next week, and objections, if any, will be resolved before the inclusion of new voters by early August,” said the Election Commissioner.

Responding to a question, Sanaullah confirmed that two political parties recently applied to get ‘Water Lily’ as an electoral symbol. On June 17, Nagorik Oikya applied to change its symbol in line with the RPO provision and sought Water Lily and later on June 22, NCP also applied for the Water Lily.

“After reviewing all aspects, the EC has decided not to include the ‘Shapla’ (water lily) in the list of electoral symbols. This is the final word,” he added.

Some parties that previously applied for registration have been asked to submit additional information to complete the process.

The commission meeting also discussed the possible amendments regarding several laws including the Election Commission Secretariat (Amendment) Ordinance and the Election Officers (Special Provision) Act, as well as the affidavits of candidates and the administrative and financial authorities of EC Secretariat’s officials. The commission fine-tuned the laws.

The meeting decided that the five-member election commission instead of the CEC and the EC Secretary will oversee the appointment of top election officials above district election officers.- UNB