The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

A group of election monitors in the light of their experiences in the Constitutional Election of Nepal at a press conference in the city urged the Government to use transparent ballot boxes in the next general election.

They also urged the government to ban banners, posters and wall writings before and during the election period.

They also urged the Election Commission (EC) to make registration of the political parties as per 'Code of Conduct' of the EC mandatory.

They recommended the Caretaker Government (CG) to appoint volunteers in all polling centres to be fixed by the EC.

The Press Conference was organised by Bangladesh Manobadhikar Samannay Parishad (BMSP) at Dhaka Reporters Unity to share experiences on the recent constitutional election that was held in Nepal. A 19-member team including seven women visited Nepal to monitor the election.

Hafiz Uddin Khan, former adviser to the CG, AHM Nouman, President of Development Organisation of the Rural Poor (DORP), Muhammad Shamsuddin, Director of BMSP, Syed Nilufer Kaderi, Vice President of Annanya Samaj Kalyan Sangstha and Nazmul Haque Shah Chowdhury, Vice President of Bangladesh Institute of Human Rights, shared their experiences at the conference.

While relating their experiences the speakers said in Nepal the polling centres were open to sky and about 1,08,000 volunteers monitored the election. Of them, 200 were foreigners. Fifty-four political parties attended the election, while candidates were 3,947 and voters were 1,76,11,000.

They said Nepalese Army was not deployed on the election day. Voting system was absolutely electronic. There was supply of pure drinking water for voters in all polling booths.

In the ballot papers, there was no name of candidates or their political parties and mobile connection remained open on the election day in Nepal, said the speakers at the conference.