Bangladesh Government amends electoral law amid opposition

Dhaka, Aug 22: The Bangladesh interim government has

amended the electoral law introducing "no vote" option amid

opposition by major political parties.

The Representation of the People (Amendment) Ordinance

was promulgated on August 19 and the gazette notification was

made public yesterday.

The ordinance barred all the political parties from

running front organisations and overseas ...

incorporated provisions to check trade in nomination and

influence of black money in the polls.

It has also brought about the changes in order to include

"no vote" option for a person who does not want to vote any of

the contesting candidates and mandatory registration of

contesting political parties for the first time in

Bangladesh's history.

According to the new law, any person declared war

criminal by a local or international court could not be run

for elections.

Whereas, the Government claimed that the gazette was

signed by President Iajuddin Ahmed after getting advisory

council’s approval and consultations with political parties

and the Election Commission, the parties said they were

consulted but their suggestions have not been included, a

national daily New Age reported.

Major political parties, including the Awami League and

Bangladesh Nationalist Party have opposed the amendments

saying that many of the provisions are unprecedented and the

military-backed interim Government does not have a popular

mandate and authority to introduce them.

"Government had made the changes in the electoral law

only to obstruct the furtherance of political and democratic

process and they could not accept such changes in the

electoral law made under the state of emergency- in force

since January last year," Awami League member Matia Chowdhury

quoted as saying in the newspaper.