Relax rules of political party registration

Given ground reality in Bangladesh, the need for registration of political parties is undeniable. But the rules in this regard should not be so rigid as to keep most of the active political parties out of the election fray. According to the prevailing laws, in order to be registered, a political party must have 22 district committees and 100 upazila committees. And even that is not sufficient. There have to be party offices in all these districts and upazilas, and each upazila committee must have at least 200 members. These conditions are considered to be too stringent.

It is unrealistic to expect a party, before registration, to have committees and offices in around one third of the country’s districts. If most of the active political parties are to be registered, the election commission must review the existing rules. If not, no party other than the presently registered 40 will be able to participate in the election.
In response to the election commission, 76 political parties recently applied for registration. However, after scrutiny, not a single one of them was granted registration. This was because of the difficult conditions imposed. In some cases it may have been because of the party constitution. Previously the requirement was for committees in 10 districts and 50 upazilas. What was the need to increase this?
The election commission must keep in mind that registration is not a means to control politics, but to ensure that election politics are run according to certain rules and regulations. Rather than the number of committees, it is more important to assess the ideological standing, programmes and constitutions of the parties. All parties that uphold Bangladesh’s constitution and sovereignty have the right to registration and to take part in the election. The question here arises about Jamaat-e-Islami’s registration. The commission cancelled its registration as its constitution was at variance with the constitution of the country.
Several political parties held press conferences to call for a relaxation in the registration rules. They called for the registration of parties which had central committees, central offices and constitutions. Though politics is supposed in public interest, in the past many so-called political parties were formed just to reap personal benefits. This happened more commonly during the martial law rule. During the rule of Ershad, almost all parties boycotted the 1988 election except for 70 mostly nondescript parties who formed an alliance. We don’t want such superfluous parties, but at the same time we don’t want genuine parties to be left out of the loop due to strict rules for registration. And the registration process should be open at all times, not just when the election draws near.
There are 40 registered political parties in the country at present. Most of them are part of either ruling Awami League’s 14 party alliance or opposition BNP’s 20 party alliance. There are many parties outside of these registered ones that are politically active. The faction of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal which has applied for registration as Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal, has three members of parliament. If the party is not registered, those MPs will also lose their party identity.
The election commission needs to relax the rules for registration and draw more political parties into the election process.