Army deployment in polls depends on consensus: EC Sec

Election Commission Secretary Mohammad Abdullah has said the army will be deployed in the next parliamentary polls if there is a consensus among political parties.

"To my knowledge, no general election was held without the presence of army in the past. The army had been deployed in the field, no matter what was their authority and type of engagement...

If there's a consensus among all parties, the Election Commission will honour it," he told journalists at his office in the city, reports UNB.

Abdullah also said if all the political parties reach a consensus for bringing back the armed forces under the definition of law enforcement agencies in the Representation of People Order (RPO), the EC will consider it positively.

The RPO was amended before the 2001 national election empowering the members of army, air force and navy deployed in elections to arrest anybody without warrant within a 400-yard radius of a polling station for the violation of electoral laws on the polling day.

But the Awami League-led government, assuming office in 2009, amended the RPO, dropping the words armed forces from the definition of law enforcement agencies. So, the armed forces lost the authority to arrest without warrant.

Turning to EC's dialogue with different stakeholders, including registered political parties, he said the dialogue is likely to begin on July 30 next amid talks with civil society members.

Noting that the EC Secretary is now preparing the dialogue agenda, he said its Secretariat has a previous list of civil society members, which will be updated before the dialogue.

He said only political parties registered with the EC will be invited to join the dialogue.

On July 16 next, the Commission will finalise seven plans of 11th national election roadmap and publish a book on the roadmap. And the books will be provided to all political parties and participants of the dialogues, Abdullah said.

Replying to a question, he said the desire of the incumbent commission headed by KM Nurul Huda is that they will not retreat in taking any step for protecting the Commission's image. "The Commission has also the power and legal authority to do so."

About the delimitation of parliamentary constituencies, the EC Secretary said the constituencies will be re-demarcated considering applications the EC would receive over it. The Commission will also hear both petitioners and defendants before redrawing constituencies.