Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has demanded that the Election Commission withdraw its proposed provision barring MPO-listed teachers from contesting local government elections and cancel the contractual appointment of an additional secretary over “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 on Wednesday.
Election Commissioners Abdur Rahmanel Masud and Tahmida Ahmad, along with EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed, were also present at the meeting in the morning, reports UNB.
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 June 30 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“So, we believe that the proposed provision needs to be reconsidered and withdrawn or amended so that the constitutional right of eligible citizens to political participation remains intact,” it said.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.
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.