Desk Report
Publish: 27 Jan 2022, 02:55 pm
Photo: Collected
A bill titled "Appointment of the chief
election commissioner and election commissioners Bill, 2022" today passed
in the Jatiya Sangsad aiming to form the next commission under a new law.
Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister
Anisul Huq piloted the bill in the House which was unanimously passed by voice
votes with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.
Earlier, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs
Minister Anisul Huq placed the bill in the House on January 23.
According to Article 118 (1) of the
Constitution, the bill will give a legal shield to the appointments of the
Chief Election Commissioner and election commissioners to form the EC.
The tenure of the incumbent KM Nurul Huda led
election commission will expire on Feb 14.
Placing the bill, the law minister said the
bill has been proposed to form a six-member search committee for recommending
the names of qualified persons who will be eligible for appointment of the CEC
and ECs under the commission.
Before enacting the law, opposition Jatiya
Party and lawmakers of other political parties like BNP, Gonoforum demanded
seeking public review and the amendment of the constitution.
But later the proposals for seeking public
review by the opposition lawmakers were rejected through voice votes by the
treasury bench lawmakers.
Discussing elaborately about the draft law, Huq
said the enacting of the law will not by pass the article 48 of the
constitution as the law has not imposed any obligation on the president to
discuss others on giving his nomination for the search committee.
Talking about caretaker government provision,
he said the Supreme Court and the High Court has also declared the caretaker
system illegal, but the BNP has no respect to the court verdict.
Rejecting BNP’s concern to enact the law, law
minister said BNP had persuaded unfair means by appointing Justice M A Aziz as
the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and made 1.30 crore fake voters.
BNP had done this for wining in the elections
unilaterally, said the law minister explaining the justification of enacting
the law.
He said that transparency and neutrality of the
search committee had been ensured in the proposed law.
He claimed that the proposed law was much
better than relevant laws in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Germany,
Nepal, Bhutan and many other countries.
The law has been enacted to form a transparent
and powerful commission in line with the example of the parliamentary democracy,
the minister added.
Earlier on January 17, the cabinet approved the
draft bill.
The Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs
Division placed the bill titled ‘The Chief Election Commissioner and the
Election Commissioners Appointment Bill 2022’, proposing the formation of a
search committee led by an Appellate Division judge.
The search committee will also have a High
Court Division judge, the comptroller and auditor general, the Public Service
Commission chairman and two eminent citizens, nominated by the president, as
its members to find suitable persons for appointment as CEC and ECs, according
to the bill.
The AD judge and the HC judge will be nominated
by the chief justice.
The cabinet has approved the draft bill, having
a provision for a six-member search committee to find suitable candidates for
the CEC and the election commissioners in keeping with Article 118 of the
constitution.
The proposed law would have a retrospective
effect with the section that all the Election Commissions constituted in the
past would be deemed to have been formed under the new law.
The government move came in the wake of demand
from major political parties and civil society organisations for the enactment
of a law on the formation of the Election Commission as successive governments
in the past 50 years of the country’s independence have framed no law for the
purpose.
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