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| Bangladesh |
| BNP needs to amend its constitution |
| 2007-11-28 |
| The Election Commission (EC) will not register BNP unless the party amends its constitution to ensure practice of democracy within itself, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda yesterday said. "We have carefully examined the constitution of BNP. The party should apply for registration after amending its constitution," Huda said at the electoral reforms talks with the Workers Party of Bangladesh at the EC Secretariat conference room. "I think a few other parties will also have to amend their constitutions to get registered with the Election Commission," the CEC said. Without naming these parties, he said, "They talk about democracy but do not practise it within their parties." Referring to the present stance of Jatiya Party (Ershad), the CEC said the acting chairman of the party has asked the EC to complete the electoral reforms soon so that the party can modify its constitution in line with the reforms. The Workers' Party asked the EC not to register the anti-Liberation and communal forces like Jamaat-e-Islami and other political parties based on religion as per the commission's proposed rules for registration. In reply the CEC said the EC will examine the constitutions of all parties when they officially apply for registration, which is mandatory for contesting the polls. The constitutions of BNP and Jatiya Party, the two parties that have run the country during most of the last 36 years since liberation, provide their chiefs with absolute authorities to run the parties as per their desire. This has left few scopes for practising democracy within the parties. The chiefs of the two parties appoint other party office bearers and are empowered to expel any one from the organisations at any time. Both the BNP and Jatiya Party were founded by military rulers Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad. The constitution of Awami League, another major political party, provides sufficient scopes to practise democracy within the party, but party senior leaders do not allegedly follow the constitution in running the party and rather empower the party chief in taking any crucial decision. |
| Posted by:Fred |