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| Bangladesh |
| Most parties against joining talks with Jamaat |
| 2007-11-26 |
| Most of the political parties expressed their unwillingness to join the Election Commission's (EC) planned conference on electoral reforms -- scheduled for next month, if Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, the anti-liberation force that had committed war crimes, is invited to it. The EC is planning to hold a daylong conference where the top leaders of the parties that separately sat with the commission in the ongoing first round of electoral reform talks since September 12, would gather together. According to the EC's plan, the participating parties would give their final opinions on the final draft of the EC proposed electoral reform scheme that it would bring to the conference based on the outcome of the dialogues. Contacted by The Daily Star yesterday senior leaders of other political parties, those have already participated in the talks with the EC and demanded for disqualifying the war criminals including Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh from contesting in the polls, rejected the EC's plan. All of them except Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ) and Jamaat, also demanded that the EC should not allow Jamaat to be registered with it as a parliamentary political party. They said they will not sit with Jamaat leaders. Being informed of the EC's plan during the electoral reform talk between the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) and the commission yesterday, the former rejected outright the idea of joining the conference where Jamaat would be present, and said it is not possible for the party to sit with the anti-liberation war criminals. "We have never sat with Jamaat-e-Islami and we will never sit with them on a common platform. You must understand the political reality and the very sensitive nature of the issue. So, you [EC] think about what you want to do since other parties will also not agree to sit with Jamaat," CPB Secretary General Mujahidul Islam Selim told the chief election commissioner (CEC) during the dialogue. CEC ATM Shamsul Huda, who informed the CPB delegation about the EC's plan of holding the conference, also said the commission plans to hold the proposed conference in Bangladesh China Friendship Centre in the capital. "We have not thought about it earlier. You are the [CPB] first to raise the point. We have to think about it," CEC Huda told the CPB delegation about their objection to Jamaat's participation in the conference. Except Jamaat and IOJ, the nine other political parties that already had their electoral reform talks with the EC till yesterday, demanded disqualification of war criminals from contesting in the polls. Participating in the electoral reform dialogues with the EC, Awami League, two factions of Jatiya Party, two factions of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Krishak Sramik Janata League, Gantotantri Party, and National Awami Party (NAP) also demanded for not allowing the anti-liberation forces including Jamaat to get registered with the EC as political parties Three other parties, the Workers Party of Bangladesh, Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh, and Samayabadi Dal (JSD), who will sit with the EC separately for the electoral reform dialogues soon, are also likely to raise the same demand. Another major political party BNP, which formed the immediate past elected ruling alliance with Jamaat, however has yet to decide on the matter. Echoing the growing demand, CPB yesterday argued that Jamaat cannot get registration from the EC since it is a political force that was defeated in the liberation war. "The Pakistan army cannot run its activities in independent Bangladesh since they were defeated in 1971. Similarly, its political collaborators were also defeated in 1971 and they cannot demand the same democratic rights other organisations enjoy," CPB Secretary General Selim, who placed the party's electoral reform proposals to EC, argued. |
| Posted by:Fred |