Gonojote delegation meets CEC, seeks relaxed party registration rules

The Biplobi Gonojote, an alliance of seven political organisations, has urged the Election Commission to simplify the party registration process under existing electoral laws.

In a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin and other commissioners at the EC headquarters in the capital's Agargaon today, a seven-member delegation from the alliance proposed that registration should require only three basic criteria: a central committee, a central office, and a party constitution.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Biplobi Gonojote Coordinator and Bangladesh Gonomukti Party General Secretary Abdul Monem said, "We discussed possible revisions to the law. Our proposal is to make party registration possible with just a central committee, a central office, and a constitution."

Monem added that in many countries, parties are registered based solely on the existence of a committee or an office. 

Criticising the current framework, he said, "The law introduced during the 1/11 regime was draconian. We protested against it. Later, the Sheikh Hasina government made the registration process even tougher. 

"Running a political party now requires at least Tk30 lakh per month. We raised these concerns again today."

The other members of the delegation were Noor Mohammad Monir, president of the Bangladesh Sarbojonin Party; Md Didar Hossain, president of the Bangladesh Gorib Party; Jasim Uddin Raja, convener of the Bangladesh Peace Forum; Alok Chowdhury, general secretary of the Smriti Sangsad; Ahmad Hossain Bhuiyan, politburo member of Samyabadi Dal of Bangladesh; Md Mozammel Haque of the Bangladesh Green Party.