Old wine in new bottle

Strongly criticising the election commission law, Jatiya Party yesterday said it was nothing but old stuff in new package.

"As a result of the enactment of this law, the process for the formation of the Election Commission and the commission's ability to effectively carry out its responsibilities do not seem to have improved. As before, the above matters will be indirectly under the control of the prime minister," said JP Chairman GM Quader.

Addressing a press conference at the Jatiya Party chairman's office in Banani, he said the new law has legitimised the old system.

"Even after the enactment of this law, there are still doubts about holding of free, fair and acceptable elections, just like in the past," he said.

In a written statement, Quader said the law, which has been passed, only deals with the formation of the election commissions but its powers have not been dealt with.

He said the recently enacted law calls for the formation of a search committee. A definite outline has been given in that regard but the transparency in the search committee's work has not been ensured.

"Moreover, the provision of proposing names within 15 working days seems too short a time, which can create doubts among people," he said.

The JP chief said no provision has been kept to publish the list of names and reveal the identities of those nominated by the search committee. There will be suspicion that the election commission was not being formed as per the search committee's recommendations.

As per Article 48 (3) of the constitution, the president would have to work on the advice of the prime minister and the prime minister will have the opportunity to nominate any person or group of people affiliated with her party through the president.

He said, "In order to avoid the above scope under the present law, we think it was necessary to amend Article 48 (3) of the constitution and directly hand over the powers to the president to appoint election commissioners."