The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The Election Commission (EC) will start its second round of dialogue ban on wall writing with the political parties on electoral reforms next week.

"The Election Commission will sit with 17 political parties separately," said Election Commissioner M Sohul Hussain while he was talking to reporters at his office yesterday.

He indicated that the dialogue might be started on 17th or 18th of this month.

Sohul Hussain said a draft ordinance is underway to restrict writings and pasting of posters during the polls. The Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives will implement the law, he said.

The Election Commissioner said there would be a provision of a fine of Tk 10,000 and in default three months imprisonment for any violation of the law. Any magistrate or mobile court can try such case.

Regarding the second round of dialogue, he said if dialogue with the BNP were delayed, the second round of talks with the other political parties would proceed.

He, however, said that if the court comes to a decision regarding dialogue with the BNP on February 12, the Commission would hold talks with them first. "If that does not happen, we will start talks with the other parties with whom we talked earlier since the time is very limited," he added.

Replying to a question, the Election Commissioner said the second round of dialogue would be shorter one. Discussion will be held only on those aspects of the law under dispute, he hinted.

He said the Commission might hold dialogues with two or three parties a day.

"We think that the task will be easy if the dialogue is held separately with each political party," he observed.

Before starting the second round of dialogue, the EC wants the court decision on holding of the stalled dialogue with BNP.

The EC started its first round of dialogue with political parties in September last year.

It has completed dialogue with 16 parties. Only the BNP has been left out of the dialogue, as a difficulty has surfaced as the EC invited a faction of Saifur-Hafiz led BNP dropping the other faction of BNP led by its Secretary General Khondaker Delwar Hossain.

The EC was originally scheduled to hold talks with the BNP on Nov 22, as part of its series of talks with the political parties on the reform of the election laws.

According to the election roadmap, the dialogues were meant to be completed within three months from last September. The election laws are expected to be finalised by next month.

Meanwhile, a writ petition, filed on behalf of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia with the High Court on Nov 18, resulted in a stay on the effectiveness of the EC's letter of invitation to the party for dialogue.

The order prevented Acting Secretary General of the BNP Hafizuddin Ahmed, who was nominated by the standing committee, from entering into dialogue with the EC.

The same court asked the EC to explain why the letter of invitation should not be declared illegal.

A decision in this regard is expected to come after the hearing on a writ filed in the High Court. Hearing on the writ is scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday).