A total of 210 local organizations have applied to the Election Commission to serve as poll observers during the 12th national elections.
Sources at the Public Relations department of the Election Commission said that If deemed worthy of evaluation, the organizations will have the opportunity to monitor all parliamentary and local government elections for the next five years.
Assistant Director (Public Relations) of the Election Commission Ashadul Haque said a total of 199 applications were submitted within the scheduled time, which was February 2. “Additionally, 11 more applications were sent after the deadline.”
The official also mentioned that a seven-member committee to evaluate the applications met on Thursday.
He added the initial verification and selection of these applications will be done within 15 to 20 days from now.
“Then the report will be submitted to the Election Commission. Within 15 days, a public notice will be issued to find out if there are any claims or objections against those whose applications have been accepted in the primary selection. If any complaints are received against any organization, the commission will hear both sides and make a decision regarding it,” he added.
Meanwhile, the assistant director also said that the registration of the existing poll observers is expiring on July 11.
“Hence, it is expected that the final process will be completed by June according to the plans of the commission,” he added.
The 12th parliamentary polls is scheduled at the end of this year or the beginning of next year, 2024.
The then KM Nurul Huda Commission had registered 119 organizations for five years in 2018 before the 11th parliament elections.
The EC official also said that registration applications will be rejected if the organizations have not observed an election in the last five years (2018-2022 December).
However, parties that could not be registered in 2018, but observed any parliamentary or local government general or by-elections during their tenure, will be considered eligible to apply, he added.
The registration for observer organizations was launched before the 9th parliamentary elections.
Although the period was fixed for one year, later the policy was made to extend the period to five years.
In 2008, a total of 138 organizations were registered by the then ATM Shamsul Huda’s commission. Then the registration period was one year.
In 2011, a total of 120 observer organizations were registered and after the registration period of these organizations expired in January 2016, Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad’s commission extended it by one more year.
In the 9th parliamentary elections, 75 local organizations were observing the polls, but in the 10th parliamentary election, it was reduced to 35.
Later in 2018, some 199 organizations applied but only 119 were registered.
About 34,838 observers of 81 organizations had applied to monitor the election, however, the commission allowed some 25,920 election observers during the 11th parliamentary polls.
Draft integrated policy in the making
A draft of an integrated journalistic policy on electoral news gathering is being prepared by the Election Commission for the 12th parliamentary elections. There are also plans to hold discussions with mass media workers on the proposed policy.
According to one point of the draft policy, journalists and observers will need to use Election Commission-approved vehicles, with stickers issued by the commission.
