EC to hold talks with editors on reforms
Staff Correspondent
The Election Commission (EC) will hold talks with editors of national dailies and senior journalists in the middle of this month seeking their opinion on draft proposals for electoral reforms, the EC secretary said yesterday. But holding talks with political parties still remains uncertain as the caretaker government is yet to respond to the chief election commissioner's (CEC) proposal for withdrawal of embargo on indoor politics allowing the EC to sit with the parties. Asked about this at the weekly press briefing, EC Secretary Humayun Kabir said, "I can't respond to this question now." CEC ATM Shamsul Huda at a meeting with the law adviser on April 4 asked the government to withdraw the ban on indoor politics so that EC can hold dialogue with political parties first. But the ban continues, and in this situation the EC opened its planned series of talks by holding a discussion with eminent personalities on April 26. Sources in the caretaker government said possibility of withdrawing the embargo soon is slim. Meanwhile, the EC at an inter-ministerial meeting at its secretariat yesterday discussed ways to implement its mega project for simultaneously preparing voter list with photographs and national identity cards. The EC secretary however said the meeting was held to collect some information from the ministries and departments concerned. Secretaries to the ministries of home affairs, planning and LGRD, and director generals of the bureau of statistics, and passport directorate were present at the meeting chaired by the CEC. "Assistance from the home ministry is required if national identity cards are to be prepared along with voter list as the ministry has a project for such identity cards," the EC secretary said. The LGRD ministry can provide information about registration of births and deaths to prevent duplication in preparing voter list, he pointed out. Replying to a query, Humayun said the electoral roll ordinance and rules will be amended before starting the task of preparing voter list with photographs. A pilot project for studying feasibility of the voter list project in a rural and an urban area is expected to start towards the end of this month, he said. The EC is now working for amending the service rules for its secretariat staff, he said. "Discriminatory provisions in the service rules will be amended." Examination of the 320 controversial upazila election officers will be held on May 18, he said.
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