The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

The High Court delivers its crucial judgment today on the delimitation dispute over parliamentary constituencies that held back declaration of the election schedule.

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

On Thursday, an HC division bench comprising Justice Mir Hasmat Ali and Justice Shamim Hasnain, after a weeklong legal battle over the dispute raised by nine petitioners, set Sunday for judgment on its rule as to why the redrawn parliamentary constituencies 'should not be declared illegal'.

The same day, an Election Commission petition for vacating the High Court's earlier stay order on operation of the parliamentary seat delimitation will come up on the cause list for hearing.

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

The EC 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, four weeks after the re-demarcation of the JS seats, the High Court, following a public-interest litigation (PIL) writ petition filed by former BNP lawmaker Abdul Mannan, 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 remains in force till November 6, unless vacated, court sources said.

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'.

Mannan, also former state minister, challenged the legality 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 polls previously set for January 22, 2007.

The PIL writ petitioner 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".