Former Election Commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain has recommended introducing an election-time all-party government system with a limited power to its head.
“An interim government should be formed with representatives from all major political parties where the head of the government will have limited power,” he told a discussion at the Jatiya Press Club on Sunday.
Nagorik Oikya orgainsed the discussion, titled ‘Foiled election under a party government: Alternative thinking to hold fair polls’.
Sakhawat said representatives from many political parties may be nominated as MPs if the parliamentary polls are held under the proportionate representation system. “If the trend of capturing polling centres continues how the proportionate representation system will be applied,” he said.
About the Election Commission’s jurisdiction, the ex-election commissioner said the existing law of the land is strong to suspend polls by the Commission if violation occurs.
Referring to the recent violence during upazila polls, Sakhawat said although the Election Commission held staggered election across the country, it failed to maintain law and order in the election areas.
Sakhawat stressed reintroducing ‘No Vote’ system in elections so that the voters can exercise their right to register their protest against the nomination of ‘wrong’ candidates.
Dr Shahdeen Malik alleged that both Awami League and BNP now have become the organisations of the corrupt and unskilled people.
Without naming anyone, he said the head of the one party grabbed power like an autocrat while another party wants to bring Tarique Rahman to power.
Dr Malik said the proportionate representation system must be introduced at last to establish what he said ‘real’ democracy in the country.
General secretary of Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal (BDS) Khalequzzaman said the country does not enjoy any democracy and neither it did during the Pakistan period nor after Bangladesh’s independence.
“The sun of democracy will never rise naturally. It must be raised through a social movement,” he said.
Chaired by Nagorik Okiya coordinator Mahmudur Rahman Manna, the discussion, was addressed, among others, by Bela chief executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan, columnist Syed Abul Maksud and CPB leader Mozaffar Ahmed Khan.
Source: UNBconnect
