RPO Change Okayed-Option for 'no' vote made, party registration must

The council of advisers yesterday approved in principle the Representation of the People's Order (RPO) Ordinance 2008, okaying much sought electoral reforms including mandatory registration of political parties and an option for casting 'no' votes.According to the new ordinance, a candidate in the parliamentary election may contest for a maximum of three seats instead of the five they were allowed earlier, and the contestants must submit their election expenditure statements and related bank account statements to the Election Commission (EC).The advisory council gave its nod to the ordinance in a meeting with Chief Adviser (CA) Fakhruddin Ahmed in the chair. Talking to reporters after the meeting, CA's Press Secretary Syed Fahim Munaim said, "The ordinance will come back to the cabinet for the final approval after being vetted by the law ministry." The ordinance will be promulgated by the president through a gazette notification by the end of this month, he added.Anyone contesting in more than three constituencies will be declared ineligible for candidacy all together, says the draft ordinance that came ahead of the parliamentary election scheduled for December this year.There are also directives in the draft ordinance about democracy within political parties, electoral alliances, disqualifications for running in parliamentary polls, and about prohibitions on forming front organisations by political parties. According to the draft law, voters will be allowed to cast 'no' votes if they do not find any of the contestants worthy of their votes. An election to a constituency will be cancelled if 'no' votes amount to 50 percent or more of the total votes cast, and a bi-election will be held there. The draft ordinance fixes a new ceiling for election expenditure where a candidate will be allowed to spend a maximum of Tk 15 lakh for an electoral campaign. The amount was Tk 5 lakh before.The expenditure ceiling for political parties having more than 200 candidates will be Tk 4.50 crore. It will be Tk 3 crore for parties having 100 to 200 candidates, Tk 1.5 crore for parties with at least 100 candidates, and Tk 50 lakh for parties with less than 50 candidates. Violators of the provision will be fined Tk 10 lakh.Prepared by the law ministry and the EC following dialogues between the commission and political parties and different professional groups, the draft of the ordinance has nine clauses and 114 sections. A candidate must maintain an account of his or her electoral expenditure from the date of filing the nomination paper till the announcement of the election result. Submission of a false statement will be a punishable offence.