The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

The High Court yesterday set November 2 (Sunday) for its crucial judgment on the delimitation dispute over parliamentary constituencies that threw into deep doubt about timely declaration of the election schedule.

Schedule for the long-stalled parliamentary polls was supposed to be announced the same day (November 2) according to the timeline set by the Election Commission.

An HC division bench comprising Justice Mir Hasmat Ali and Justice Shamim Hasnain passed the order fixing the date for judgment on its rule as to why the redrawn parliamentary constituencies 'should not be declared illegal'.

The court order came after closing a weeklong legal battle between the lawyers for the Election Commission and nine petitioners identical writ petition, including former BNP lawmaker Abdul Mannan.

In the midst of the concluding day's rule hearings, TH Khan, the principal counsel for Mannan, informed the court that the EC, "without informing the writ petitioner as well as the court", moved a petition in the chamber of Justice MA Matin for vacating the stay on operation of the July 10 disputed gazette notification on delimitation.

And the chamber judge posted the petition for hearing next Sunday in the regular bench of the Appellate Division, he said for information of the court.

Khan also put forward a copy of the EC stay-vacating petition before the bench for affirming the crosscurrents of developments over the vital issue related to the crucial national elections.

On July 10 this year, the Election Commission issued a gazette notification finalizing the list of parliamentary seats with district-wise redrawn boundaries.

The move drew severe flak from political parties that feared it would stand in the way as an obstacle to holding the stalled ninth parliamentary polls as per the roadmap that slated the polls for this coming December.

On August 7, the High Court, following a public-interest litigation writ petition, stayed for three months operation of the EC notification finally redrawing the parliamentary constituencies ahead of the polls that had once been stalled in January last year amid a political crisis over the election issues.

The HC stay will continue up to November 6, court sources said, although the EC earlier had decided to announce the election schedule on November 2.

As a practice, the EC announces schedule for general election at least 42 days before the voting day.

Giving the interim order of stay, the High Court also had issued a rule upon the EC to explain why the impugned notification on the new list of parliament seats 'should not be declared illegal and unconstitutional'.

The former BNP lawmaker, MA Mannan, filed the PIL writ challenging the constitutional validity of the EC's notification on the delimitation, done under the recipe of reforms undertaken by the interim regime following the past crisis over the issues of the parliamentary elections previously set for January 22, 2007.

Mannan, also a former state minister, in his petition contended that as per the constitution, delimitation of constituencies has to be done before the voter list is made. But the EC has redrawn constituencies after completing "more than 99 per cent of voter list".