Electoral boundaries
The most debated issue is electoral boundaries reshaped by the Election Commission. Last night we had the opportunity to hear a former BNP lawmaker and a retired bureaucrat in gp-t-matra. DS has published an editorial promoting the idea to look at it from demographic consideration and arrive at an acceptable agreed solution.
What worries me here is the way the Election Commission has played with this important issue. It has not kept the political parties fully informed about this matrix they published. The former BNP lawmaker is raising a basic constitutional question. According to the constitution, the EC has no power to further delimit the constituencies as proposed and termed 'redefined" constituencies.
In the backdrop of those information, one can ask the media to feed us with the following information:-
a. Does the constitution empower the EC to redo the electoral boundaries?
b. We have two very well established parliamentary democracies- Britain and India where demographic growth is quite high since 19971. What law they have adopted to adjust the demographic growth ? Have they redefined their electoral boundaries? When and how ?
c. If demographic growth is the only consideration, as claimed, can some one like me ask why not increase the number of parliament seats, which might come for consideration in the near future?
As the BNP lawmaker was reading the relevant article of the constitution which empowers the EC to "define" the constituencies, if I am not wrong, we need to amend the constitution if we go for "redefining" the constituencies. Otherwise, the issue will definitely travel to the SC for interpretation of the constructional provision of such “redefining”. This is where many of us are afraid that the process will only delay the election beyond December 2008.
As a logical reference the tenure of this CTG came under discussion. The respected bureaucrat was quite confident that the present CTG has the constitutional mandate to remain in power till the elected government takes over. Here I have a question: if that is so, why the provision of 90 days is there? It is nothing but an obsolete or contradictory clause to the provision of "till the elected government takes over" Did the lawmakers foresee the present type of situation ?
To finish this letter, I would like to express my appreciation to the former lawmaker of the BNP for playing the role of a politician in the talk show and asking for the delimitation to be done by the elected parliament and not by the unclear mandate of the EC. If necessary, the constitution could be amended by parliament.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments