The High Court has issued a rule on the question of the public notice published by the Election Commission (EC) for the registration of a new political party. After the initial hearing of a writ, a High Court bench comprising Justice Md. Akram Hossain Chowdhury and Justice KM Rasheduzzaman Raja issued the rule along with the order on Tuesday.
The Election Commission issued the public notice on March 10, inviting applications for the registration of a new political party. Hasnat Qayyum, the chief coordinator of the State Reform Movement and Supreme Court lawyer, filed the writ on March 16 regarding the validity of the public notice. Today, he himself heard the writ in court, accompanied by lawyer Abeda Gulrukh.
Lawyer Hasnat Qayyum said that the process of the public notice for the registration of a political party has been suspended in the case of the party (State Reform Movement) that filed the writ. He told Prothom Alo that the rule seeks to know why the public notification for the registration of a political party will not be declared without legal authority in light of Section 90B of the Representation of the People Order, which defeats the spirit of the definition of a political party mentioned in the Constitution and the recommendations of the Electoral Reform Commission.
According to the EC's public notification, political parties that wish to register as political parties under Section 90B of the Representation of the People Order, 1972, and are able to fulfill the conditions mentioned in the 2008 Political Party Registration Rules, are being urged to apply for registration by April 20 by filling out Form-1 attached to the rules as per the Election Commission's guidelines.
And according to Section 90B of the Representation of the People Order, a political party can register its name with the commission subject to fulfilling the conditions mentioned in Section 90B. Section 90B mentions some specific conditions for registration in addition to offices at the district and upazila levels. Such as having an active central office with a central committee, establishing district offices in at least one-third of the administrative districts and offices in at least 100 upazilas or metropolitan police stations, each of which must have a minimum of 200 voters enrolled as members, etc.
The writ petitioner said that the law states that for the registration of a political party, there must be party committees in at least 100 upazilas and 22 districts. However, there are 20 upazilas in the three hill districts. For this reason, even if the hill people are interested, they will not be able to register as a political party. That condition was added to the Representation of the People Order in 2011 during the autocratic government. The Electoral Reforms Commission has recommended that a political party be registered if it has a total of 5,000 members, including 5 percent upazila and 10 percent district committees. In this situation, the public notice was hastily issued under the old law. This public notice is contrary to the spirit of the definition of a political party given in the Constitution—the writ was basically filed on these grounds.