Election code of conduct finalised
Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad on Wednesday turned down the statement of his deputy Zabed Ali saying that the Election Commission has not taken any decision to communicate with BNP to pursue it for joining the national election.
“The Election Commission (EC) is independent and neutral body. The commission has not taken any decision to contact with BNP for the sake of retaining its neutrality. Because the commission plays the role of a referee…. the commission didn’t communicate with any party,” he said.
The CEC made the remark to reporters at his EC Secretariat office when his attention was drawn about the statement of Election Commissioner Zabed Ali who on Tuesday said the EC was communicating with BNP to pursue them for joining the general election.
Rakibuddin said the election is a transitional way for democracy. “Our political parties understand the pulse of people. We hope the parties will reach a compromise.”
“Violence is not the language of democracy. We believe that the solution will come through negotiations. This is the language of democracy,” he added.
The CEC hoped that the political parties will join the election in a peaceful manner leaving the path of violence.
Earlier, the commission finalised the proposed election code of conduct for the political parties and candidates in its meeting incorporating a fresh provision that no one can prevent anyone or candidate from submitting nomination paper.
The proposed code will be sent to the Law Ministry for its vetting within the next few days. Then the EC will approve it finally.
According to the clause 8 (A) of the code states that no candidate or person can hinder other candidate or his agent during submission of nomination papers to the returning officers or assistant returning officer.
Earlier, on October 30, the EC drafted the proposed code barring ministers and MPs from availing themselves of state facilities in electioneering once the election schedule is announced.
The copy of the draft code was also uploaded on the commission website seeking suggestions and opinion over it from people and political parties.
But no political party placed any suggestion over the draft code.
As per the proposed code, the very important persons (VIPs) among the government beneficiaries, including the prime minister, the opposition leader and the ministers and MPs cannot participate in political programmes availing of state facilities from the announcement of the election schedule to publishing of gazette notification.
The government beneficiaries, including ministers and state ministers, will not combine their official programme with electioneering. The restriction will also be applicable for the prime minister and the leader of the opposition, he said.
In the proposed code, the ‘pre-election time’ has been defined as the time from announcement of election schedule to the date publication of election result on government gazette notification.
The VIPs among the government beneficiaries are the Prime Minister, the Speaker of Parliament, ministers, the Chief Whip, the Deputy Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, state ministers, whips, deputy ministers and persons who hold equivalent post, MPs and city corporation mayors.
Source: UNB connect
