Electoral reform proposals weak: LDP
The Liberal Democratic Party on Thursday said that the reform proposals related to the Election Commission were weak.
LDP president Oli Ahmad, before beginning a dialogue between the National Consensus Commission and his party representatives led by him at Jatiya Sangsad, also told reporters that the electoral reform commission should have collected documents from past dialogues with political parties.
The NCC began its reforms-related dialogue with political parties on Thursday through talks with LDP representatives.
Oli Ahmad, a retired colonel, told reporters that his party agreed with 120 proposals, disagreed with 42 proposals and partially agreed with two others out of 166 proposals sent in a spreadsheet by the NCC.
He said that they did not answer two of the proposals as they did not have a clear idea about them.
He said that a fair election would not be possible, whatever the reforms are adopted if the upazila nirbahi officer and the officer-in-charge of the local police station would not play impartial roles.
According to him, the reform proposals still fail to determine the proper role of the two key officials.
He requested that the LDP鈥檚 opinion paper should remain classified.
The consensus commission鈥檚 vice-chairman Professor Ali Riaz chaired the dialogue. NCC members including Safar Raj Hossain, Justice Emdadul Haque, Badiul Alam Majumder and Iftekharujjaman and seven LDP leaders including its secretary general Redwan Ahmed, presidium member Niyamul Bashir and Aurangajeb Belal were present.
Earlier on the day, a team of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami led by its secretary general Mia Golam Parwar submitted the party鈥檚 opinions to the consensus commission.
Golam Parwar told 抖阴精品 that his party responded to the questionnaire with several opinions on 166 reform proposals about the constitution鈥檚 fundamental principles, the decentralisation of the High Court, the appointment of the Supreme Court judges, and other issues.
He further said that his party partially agreed with the proposed National Constitutional Council, agreed with a bicameral legislature, proportionate representation, independent investigation agency, and transparency in appointing Anti-Corruption Commission officials.
Regarding the idea of a constituent assembly, he said that a constituent assembly was required to adopt a new constitution.
鈥業f a constitution already exists, the parliament can facilitate some reforms. Moreover, certain reforms can be facilitated through ordinance. We have suggested adopting the applicable solution. We have not mentioned anything specific regarding a constituent assembly,鈥� Golam Parwar said.
On March 5, the commission sent a 166-point questionnaire on key reform proposals to 38 political parties.聽 Till Thursday, 16 political parties shared their opinions with the consensus commission. The formal deadline for sharing opinions expired on March 13.
The key reform proposals covered issues relating to the constitution, electoral process, judiciary, public administration and Anti-Corruption Commission.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said that his party would submit opinions to the NCC on Sunday.