A total of 16 new political parties, including the National Citizen Party (NCP), have passed the Election Commission's (EC) initial round of scrutiny.
In mid-July, the EC had allowed a 15-day extension to 145 new political parties that were seeking registration, but had to rectify errors in their applications.
In the latest update, 129 of those parties failed to clear the initial hurdle ahead of February's parliamentary election, KM Ali Newaz, an additional secretary of the Election Commission, confirmed on August 10.
However, before a final decision on registration is made, on-site investigations of each party's activities, committees and evidence of voter support will be conducted at the field level. Once that is completed, qualifying parties will be given registration certificates.
Application and initial selection steps
On April 20 this year, the EC invited applications for registration of new political parties.
The deadline was extended several times and applications were accepted until June 22.
A total of 145 parties applied for registration, with some submitting applications more than once.
During initial scrutiny, it was seen that most of the parties had various gaps in terms of information and documentation.
Due to this, none of them could pass.
The EC then provided a 15-day extension for them to fill the deficiencies.
During this period, 80 parties submitted required documents while some applied for additional time.
Conditions for party registration
To successfully register, parties have to fulfill the conditions of the Election Rules and the Representation of the People Order (RPO). These conditions include that:
- The party must have a central committee and an active central office.
- There must be an effective district office in at least one-third of districts or administrative areas.
- There must be an effective office under at least 100 upazilas or metropolitan police stations.
- Each office must have a minimum of 200 registered voters.
- A minimum of 5,000 voters must be party members.
- If a party member or leader has previously been a member of parliament or has received five percent of the votes in a previous election, it will be considered advantageous
Although recommendations regarding new electoral reforms have proposed some changes to the conditions, they have not yet been written into law, so the EC is conducting the registration process under existing laws.
What other processes remain?
The EC will take the next decision after field-level investigation regarding the 16 parties that passed preliminary selection. After receiving the investigation report, it will finalise which party will be registered.
At this stage, activities of the central committees, district and upazila-level committees, evidence of voter support and other related issues will be reviewed.
After investigation and field-level verification, if there are any complaints or objections against any party, the EC will hear and resolve them.
If there are no objections, a registration certificate will be issued.
Without registration, no party can participate in the parliamentary elections using its own symbol.
The Election Commission launched the registration process of political parties for the first time before the 9th parliamentary elections in 2008. Since then, 55 parties have been registered.
However, the registration of some parties has also been cancelled due to failure to meet the conditions, political circumstances, or court orders.
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