Awami League presents 14 proposals before EC for holding free and fair election

Ahead of the upcoming 12th National Assembly elections, Bangladesh Awami League has sat in dialogue on the last day of the continuous dialogue of the Election Commission (EC) with the registered political parties of the country.

According to the proposal submitted by Awami League, the country’s constitution and EC Law stipulates that all elections will be held under an Election Commission and not under any government. The government must cooperate with the EC in the election process, and there is no scope for the government to influence elections as long as the EC remains neutral.

The Awami League called for ministry and divisions of the electoral government to play responsible roles during polls and urged the EC to keep control over all officials on election duty, especially certain “BNP activists” who were previously appointed as election officials during the BNP regime.

The AL also asked for the publication of a verified voter list with pictures of all the voters, as well as for security at all voting centres on the election day.

Awami League also said there was no alternative to using EVMs to prevent vote rigging.

“Awami League wants to vote through EVMs in 300 seats. There is no alternative to EVMs to stop vote robbery and rigging,” the proposal said.

The proposal also said the Awami League wishes to buy more EVMs for the polls, as the EC currently has 150,000 EVMs, which is sufficient for 13,000 out of a total 43,000 voting centres.

The party also proposed using government officials for polling officer and presiding officer posts, instead of workers of private organizations.

Awami League asked election observers and the media to play neutral roles, and said the EC should deploy foreign election observers while maintaining international election observation rules.

Awami League also urged the EC to be careful while appointing local election observers.

The party wants a “muscle and money mechanism-free” election, where every person, including the voters from minority groups, can exercise their franchise without any fear, the proposal said

Awami League said the caretaker government system is a “past and closed chapter” as it has been nulled by the supreme court of the country.

The EC started dialogues with registered political parties on July 17 for recommendations ahead of the 12th general election.

In the dialogue led by Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader, Advisory Council Member Amir Hossain Amu, Presidium Member Matia Chowdhury, Kazi Zafar Ullah, Dr Mo Abdur Razzak, Lt Col (retd) Muhammad Farooq Khan, Advisory Council Member Mohammad Sahabuddin Chuppu, Joint General Secretary Dr. Hashan Mahmud, Publicity and Publication Secretary Dr. Abdus Sobhan Golap, Information and Research Secretary Dr. Salim Mahmud, Office Secretary Barrister Biplab Barua and Education and Human Resources Secretary Begum Shamsun Nahar were also present.