Khaleda, MPs among 95 thousand can’t cast vote

Over 95,000 voters, including former prime minister Khaleda Zia and some former lawmakers, who are in jail are going to be deprived of casting vote in the December 30 Bangladesh elections as the Election Commission has taken no initiative to this end.
Former National Human Right Commission chairman Mizanur Rahman, also Dhaka University law professor, said that there was no doubt that their basic right to franchise was being curtailed. 
He also said that the ruling Awami League had earlier discussed how the expatriate Bangladeshi could cast vote but none discussed how a large number of people languishing in jails in Bangladesh might get the chance to exercise their right to vote.
Inspector general of prisons Brigadier General AKM Mustafa Kamal Pasha could not be reached but Dhaka division deputy inspector general of prisons Tipu Sultan admitted that they had taken no initiative to this end.
Election Commission additional secretary Mokhlesur Rahman admitted that No initiative was taken for allowing voters in jails to cast vote.
Asked about postal voting, stipulated in Article 27 of the Representation of the People Order and Sections 8 of the Electoral Rolls Act, for inmates, officials working in Bangladesh missions abroad and voters on election duty, he said, ‘We have taken no initiative so far as the process has not earned popularity.’
Bangladesh Nationalist Party candidate and joint secretary general AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon said that the state mechanism deprived the people in jails of their rights to vote.
The prisons of the country are crammed with 95,321 inmates, as of December 26, ahead of the 11th parliamentary elections.
About 4,500 people, mainly opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party activists, landed in jails in a week, December 19-26, ahead of the December 30 general election. 
The number of inmates of prisons reached 95,321 as of December 26 although 3,123 convicts were released on completion of sentences in a month until Wednesday and the number of drugs-related undertrials and female undertrials reduced.
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party at a press conference on Thursday alleged that 9,202 of its leaders and activists were arrested in 806 fictitious and false cases in the past 22 days.
‘We took an initiative for casting vote by inmates through postal ballots in 2008 but could not proceed due to bureaucratic tangles,’ said a senior jail official.
Another jail superintendent, however, told New Age on Thursday that they found no barrier in their codes over casting vote from jail.
Dhaka University professor Mizanur Rahman argued that postal voting by people in jails was widely practiced in western countries.
A circular issued by the Election Commission issued on November 12 said public servants based away from their constituencies and prisoners needed to apply to their respective returning officers in 15 days of the announcement of polls schedule for casting vote by postal ballot.
Media reports on December 19 said that the commission received only one postal voting request and it was from Gopalganj 1 constituency.
According to the media reports, about 33 million ballots, about 25 per cent, were cast via postal ballots in 2016 US presidential election.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net