|
Parties must bid goodbye to front organisations
Three major political parties --- Awami League (AL), BNP and Jatiya Party --- must amend their constitutions severing ties with at least 17 of their auxiliary organisations in order to be registered with the Election Commission (EC), according to the planned new electoral law.The parties will also have to scrap from their constitutions the provision that allows them to have overseas chapters. A new provision in the electoral law will make it mandatory for political parties to be registered with the EC for becoming eligible to contest in the parliamentary poll. The council of advisers to the caretaker government on Wednesday approved a number of proposed amendments to the Representation of People's Order (RPO) 1972. But successful implementation of the proposed laws remains uncertain as major political parties have been vehemently opposing the restriction on having auxiliary organisations of students and professionals. They said the new provisions are undemocratic and contradictory to the spirit of the constitution that ensures the people's freedom of speech, conscience, and association. According to the approved proposals, political parties seeking registration must declare in their constitutions that they will not have auxiliary organisations of students, teachers and workers, and neither will they have overseas chapters. Once the new law is enacted, no political party will be allowed to contest in parliamentary elections unless it is registered with the EC, and a registration may be cancelled if a party violates the provisions of the amended electoral law. Posted by: Fred 2008-08-10 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=246631 |