EC drops plan to keep parties

The Election Commission has finalised the draft of upazila electoral rules and code of conduct dropping its plan to keep political parties out of the process of the local government polls.
The EC is likely to send the draft to the law ministry today for vetting after which it will promulgate the rules exercising its power to do so under the Upazila Parishad Ordinance.
The interim government on June 30, 2008 promulgated the Local Government (Upazila Parishad) Ordinance-2008 that said the candidates must resign from their posts in political parties, if they held any, before taking oath to the elected parishads.
In the initial draft code of conduct and electoral rules for upazila polls the EC had made the upazila polls non-partisan and barred political parties from contesting the polls and participating in electioneering.
It brought changes in the draft after the High Court had scrapped similar rules prepared for city and municipal polls that barred political parties from participating in local government polls.
The EC’s plan to keep political parties out of the August 4 polls to four city corporations and nine municipalities fell through after the July 31 HC ruling that allowed the political parties to participate in local government elections.
According to the revised draft of upazila electoral rules and code of conduct, political parties will be able to contest the upcoming upazila elections.
EC sources said that the commission hoped that local government ministry would file an appeal against the HC ruling allowing political parties to contest the August 4 local government polls.
The EC is still sticking to its guns over holding polls to 300-250 upazilas in October though major political parties are strongly opposing the plan for holding any other elections before parliamentary polls the interim government has pledged to hold in December.
The Upazila Parishad Ordinance has introduced a number of provisions suggesting disqualification of certain types of candidates from contesting the elections to the local body. Bank loan defaulters and people employed in any private or semi-government schools will not be eligible to contest the elections.
Anyone who is convicted of fund embezzlement or other criminal offences, who is wanted by police and has been identified as a war criminal by any court will not be eligible for election to the upazila parishads.
The candidates must submit reports on their sources of income and account of the assets they own to the Election Commission. They must resign from the [posts of] political parties, if they hold any, before taking oath.