Jamaat asks EC to allow MPO teachers in local elections, seeks removal of additional secretary

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami on Wednesday called on the Election Commission to withdraw its proposed provision barring MPO-listed teachers from contesting local government elections and to revoke the contractual appointment of an additional secretary over alleged political affiliation.

A six-member Jamaat delegation, led by its Secretary General Mia Golam Parwar, sat in a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin at the Nirbachan Bhaban in the city's Agargaon and submitted a letter to the CEC.

Election Commissioners Abdur Rahmanel Masud and Tahmida Ahmad, along with EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed, were also present at the meeting in the morning.

According to a letter submitted to the CEC, Jamaat also demanded consideration of its previous opinions regarding the local government election code of conduct which were placed before the Election Commission on 30 June last.

In the letter, Jamaat said the EC has sent a proposal to the Ministry of Local Government declaring MPO-affiliated teachers ineligible to contest in local government elections.

If the proposed provision is implemented, several lakhs of teachers and employees of more than 30,000 MPO-affiliated educational institutions in the country will be deprived of the opportunity to participate in local government elections, which is inconsistent with the principles of equality and non-discrimination enshrined in Articles 27 and 28 of the Constitution, it added.

“So, we believe that the proposed provision needs to be reconsidered and withdrawn or amended so that the constitutional right of eligible citizens to political participation remains intact,” it said.

Jamaat also demanded the immediate cancellation of the recent contractual appointment of 67-year-old Md Shamsul Alam as an additional secretary to the EC Secretariat, alleging that he had links with a political party.

The party claimed that media reports regarding his alleged political affiliation have raised questions among people about the neutrality of the Election Commission.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Mia Golam Parwar said the delegation discussed four demands with the Commission. "We met the Election Commission to discuss our demands aimed at ensuring the upcoming local government elections are fair, neutral, transparent and credible," he said.

Raising the fourth demand, he said they asked the EC to make the administrators appointed to local government bodies on political considerations ineligible to contest local government elections.

Regarding Shamsul Alam's appointment, Parwar alleged that appointing a politically affiliated person to a constitutional body like the Election Commission would undermine its neutrality as he had served as a member of the BNP''s electoral constituency delimitation committee.

The Jamaat leader alleged that the appointment was intended to influence the upcoming local government elections in favour of the ruling party.

The EC told the delegation that it had not been aware of Shamsul Alam's alleged political affiliation and that the contractual appointment had been made by the government. “But the EC could have objected to the appointment,” he said.

Parwar criticised ministers for making differing statements about the possible timing of local government elections.

He also criticised the EC over the publication of the gazette notification declaring BNP leader Sarwar Alamgir elected from Chattogram-2 on the same day the Supreme Court delivered its verdict.

Parwar alleged that the Commission had acted under political pressure by issuing the gazette without waiting for the signed copy of the court order.

“Their body language reflected that they did it under pressure,” he added.

Responding to a question, Parwar said they did not discuss the parliamentary membership of its expelled Satkhira-4 lawmaker Gazi Nazrul Islam in the meeting.

"We have already written to both the Speaker and the Election Commission. Expulsion from the party is the highest disciplinary action we can take. The issue of parliamentary membership is constitutional and falls under the jurisdiction of the Speaker and the Election Commission," he said.

The Jamaat delegation also included Assistant Secretaries General Dr AHM Hamidur Rahman Azad, Ahsanul Mahboob Zubair and Moazzem Hossain Helal, members of its central working committee Jasim Uddin Sarkar and Shishir Mohammad Monir.