The Representation of the People Order, 1972 (RPO) is the core electoral legal framework of Bangladesh. Some new provisions were made during the time of the last caretaker government in view of modernising the RPO, such as, bringing transparency in selection of candidates by the political parties. Later, the law was passed in the parliament in 2009 with amendment.

However, we hoped that new RPO provisions would ensure intra-party democracy but the way of nomination of Simin Hossain Rimi for Gazipur-4 constituency recently dismayed us. Awami League did not listen to any suggestions regarding this nomination from the grassroots level committees and it was clear that the decision was taken by the party high-ups.

The revised law states that a political party has “to finalise nomination of candidate by central parliamentary board of the party from the panels prepared by the members of the ward, union, thana, upazila or district committee… of constituency concerned.”

An article by Md. Abdul Alim entitled “Analysis of RPO: Does the law ensure governance in candidate selection?” published recently in this daily pointed at many aspects and the authorities concerned should consider his opinions.

In this context, I would like to mention another good new RPO provision that says a person is disqualified (not applicable for independent candidate) for election if he/she has not been a member of a registered party for three years.

We hope political parties would be sincere to abide by the RPO provisions and the Election Commission (EC) would be vigilant against any loopholes created with an ulterior motive by the parties.