Bangladesh to enact election reforms by July

BANGLADESH: Political parties in Bangladesh will face tough new voting rules in future polls such as a bar on candidates who have defaulted on loan, utility or tax payments, an election official said Sunday.

Reforms to the country's voting system and candidate eligibility rules are expected to be completed by July and will pave the way for polls that were cancelled in January following violent protests over vote rigging allegations, election commissioner Sakhawat Hossain said.

"We will complete the reforms by July. We hope these reforms will make sure that all future elections reflect the true verdict of the people," he said.

He did not specify a date for when the next election would be held.

He said the bar on defaulters and other reforms such as the requirement to declare funding sources were part of the sweeping changes that the country's military-backed interim government promised after taking power following the declaration of a state of emergency in January.

Hossain, a retired brigadier general, was one of three election chiefs the interim government appointed as part of its pledge to prepare the ground for credible polls.

A leading legal expert said the new reforms would strengthen democracy in Bangladesh.

"These reforms are very much essential for Bangladesh democracy. They will definitely plug the flaws that we have witnessed in our past democratic experiences," retired supreme court Justice Golam Rabbani said.

"Our democracy will be strengthened once we get rid of the influence of the defaulters in our political system. We have already seen how bad our democracy could be with these people running the show," he added.

Hossain also said that routinely flouted campaign finance laws that limit spending to 500,000 taka (9,000 dollars) in a parliamentary race would be updated and enforced. "This time we will implement the laws so that bad money cannot dominate the polls," Hossain said.

Meanwhile Bangladeshi police said they had formally laid charges of extortion against the influential son of Bangladesh's outgoing prime minister Khaleda Zia.

"We have filed the charge sheet against Tareque Rahman and his secretary at the speedy trial court. They are charged with extorting 10 million taka (144,000 dollars) from a businessman," said police investigator Mahbub Morshed.

The charges were laid after the police's "preliminary investigations found evidence and proof that Tareque took money from construction businessman Amin Ahmed Bhuiyan", he added.

"The court will now hold a trial after completing some formalities," he said.

Dhaka, Monday, AFP