DHAKA, 18 August 2007 — The Election Commission (EC) in Bangladesh is now set to invite around 20 political parties that fulfill the conditions of registration to discuss proposed reform of electoral laws. The EC is considering the conditions of Political Party Registration Act as criteria for sending invitations, which is yet not finalized, senior EC officials said yesterday. Meanwhile, the EC is likely to amend the newly issued “Electoral Roll Ordinance 2007” soon to include the issue of registering expatriates in the voter list. “As per the Election Commission’s criteria, there are around 18 to 20 political parties…The criteria are the conditions of registration,” EC M. Sohul Hussain said.
According to the draft, the first two conditions for registering as political party are: “An existing political party must have won at least one seat in any of the National Assembly or Parliament elections held since independence of Bangladesh till the filing for registration or obtained no less than two percent of the total vote cast in any such elections.”
The parties eligible are Awami League, Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Jamaat-e-Islami, Jatiya Party, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Bangladesh Jatiya League, Muslim League, Democratic League, NAP (Mozaffar), Jatiya Akota Party, CPB, JSD (Rab), JSD (Siraj), Workers Party of Bangladesh, Islami Oikya Jote, NDP, Ganatantri Party, Freedom Party, Jatiya Party, Jatiya Party (Manju), NAP and Lalami Oikya Front.
