The editors and the senior journalists of the national dailies wanted all the national and the local elections to be held under caretaker government after reinstating it. With this, they wanted no ruling parties in local government elections exert their influence. In addition, they want no people without self-respect or backbone to become election commissioners.
The editors made these recommendations at a meeting of the Election Reform Commission with editors of national daily newspapers and senior journalists. The topic of the meeting was 'Electoral System Reform' and it was held at the Election Commission building in Agargaon in the capital on Thursday. After the meeting, the head of the Reform Commission, Badiul Alam Majumder, told reporter, “We discussed the issue of the three former Chief Election Commissioners (CECs). We discussed what kind of action can be taken against the electoral crimes they committed. However, we have not reached any decision on that yet. We will make recommendations after observing the last three national elections.”
He also mentioned that they are taking measures so that voters can vote even on the day before the election if the voter list is linked to the NID.
Badiul Alam Majumder further said that the editors of the print media have suggested women's empowerment to be ensured and local government elections to be held before the national elections, so that expatriates can vote without any problems. He also talked about the publication of the Reform Commission's report and said that the role of the media was discussed.
“The editors emphasized the issues that we were thinking about,” he added.
At that time, Ajker Patrika editor Golam Rahman said, “The meeting suggested the media should give enough importance and ensure access. The role of the media in every election, ensuring access to the media in local government or national elections has been emphasized. To protect the effectiveness of expatriate voters, the long-time passing issue and the issue of their voting needs to be clearly stated. If the law is to be changed or revised, that too must be included.”
Executive editor of The Bangladesh Pratidin Manjurul Islam said, “Caution must be exercised in appointing the head of the Election Commission and other commissioners. Those who have backbone, self-respect and sensibility should be appointed to the Election Commission. The commissions of the previous Awami League era have destroyed the country's electoral system. 100 reserved seats for women and direct elections must be held. Postal voting must be arranged for those who will serve in the elections, including journalists. An independent salary structure must be formed for the Election Commission.”
Prothom Alo joint editor and poet Sohrab Hasan said, “Whoever is a resident of a specific area, will represent that area. It is not fair that he/she will represent Khagrachari or Dinajpur while living in Dhaka. This deprives the voters of those areas. The game of money must be stopped. Election campaigning must be done at state expense.”
Senior journalist Golam Mortaza of The Daily Star said, “We need to know the real information about the Rakib Commission of 2014, the Nurul Huda Commission of 2018 and the Awal Commission of 2024. We need to know from them why they held elections without voters. The number of women's seats in the electoral constituency should be increased from 30 to 100.”
Senior journalist Masud Kamal said, “We have given some suggestions to the Election Reform Commission. Among these, if the caretaker government comes, local government elections should also be held under their supervision. It seems like a waste of time and money to register voters. NID cards are used during voter registration; why don't we use that as a voter card?”
(Translated by Lutful Hoque)
