{"id":28953,"date":"2016-12-20T21:11:04","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T21:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=28953"},"modified":"2016-12-20T21:11:04","modified_gmt":"2016-12-20T21:11:04","slug":"ec-formation-jp-hands-5-proposals-to-hamid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=28953","title":{"rendered":"EC Formation: JP hands 5 proposals to Hamid"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad exchanges views with President Abdul Hamid at the Bangabhaban yesterday. Ershad and his party delegation members, including Leader of the Opposition Raushan Ershad, discussed reconstitution of the Election Commission with the president. Photo: PID<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dhaka desk: President Abdul Hamid has said it is necessary to enact a law in line with the country's constitution for appointment of election commissioners, according to JP leaders.<\/p>\n

The president apparently said this when a Jatiya Party delegation met him and submitted a five-point proposal, including enactment of a law on forming the next Election Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe honourable president agreed to our proposal that a law should be enacted [to form the EC], which successive governments failed to do in the last 45 years,\u201d JP Secretary General Ruhul Amin Hawlader\u00a0\u00a0 said.<\/p>\n

He added that the president during the hour-and-a-half-long meeting told them that he might talk to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina about this.<\/p>\n

According to section 118 (1) of the constitution, the president would appoint the chief election commissioner (CEC) and other commissioners of the EC as per the rules and law regarding EC formation.<\/p>\n

The tenure of the current EC, led by Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad, will expire in February next year.<\/p>\n

Led by its chief HM Ershad, the 18-member JP delegation held talks with the president around 3:00pm on formation of the EC, which would oversee the 2019 general elections.<\/p>\n

Terming the dialogue important for democracy, the president said a framework on the formation of the new EC would come out through talks with different political parties, a release of the Bangabhaban said.<\/p>\n

In the Bangabhaban release, there was no mention whether the president spoke about enactment of a law for EC formation.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the president began the dialogue with registered political parties at the Bangabhaban over the EC formation. The BNP was the first party to meet the president.<\/p>\n

On the third day of the dialogue today, the president will meet Liberal Democratic Party and Krishok Sramik Janata League.<\/p>\n

In his speech, President Abdul Hamid yesterday said, \u201cThe dialogue is very important for democracy as it creates opportunity for holding views-exchange meetings with different political parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruhul Amin at a press conference at the party's Kakrail office said their talk with the president was fruitful. \u201cThe honourable president, who is a wise person and acceptable to all, will be able to reduce the distance and disunity among political parties through the dialogue initiative,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

JP leaders hoped that the president would be able to forge a national unity for making an acceptable EC after forming a search committee.<\/p>\n

Asked whether JP submitted any list of names for the search committee, JP presidium member SM Foysal Chishti, who was in the delegation, said, \u201cWe did not give any list to the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

5-POINT PROPOSAL<\/h2>\n

JP recommended establishing a separate EC Secretariat, passage of a new law by the present parliament on the formation of the EC, and determining certain qualities and experience of the probable election commissioners.<\/p>\n

The potential commissioners should be politically inactive, impartial, honest, professionally qualified, physically and mentally fit, are not holding any public office, and have knowledge of electoral issues.<\/p>\n

ELECTION REFORMS<\/h2>\n

About reforms of the electoral system, the JP said every political party would secure seats in parliament according to the proportion of the votes received by them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe party with the highest number of votes would win the highest number of seats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every political party would prepare a list of its candidates, make it public and submit the list to the EC. Then they will go to polls in 300 constituencies with their respective electoral symbols.<\/p>\n

If a political party bagged 50 percent of the total votes cast, it would secure 150 seats. Similarly, if a party won one percent of the total votes cast, it would get three seats.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dhaka desk: President Abdul Hamid has said it is necessary to enact a law in line with the country’s constitution for appointment of election commissioners, according to JP leaders. The president apparently said this when a Jatiya Party delegation met him and submitted a five-point proposal, including enactment of a law on forming the next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":28954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n