Freeing electoral instts from political party’s control necessary

Adviser to the local government, rural development and cooperatives ministry AF Hassan Ariff today stressed the need for bringing the electoral institutions out of the control of political party in order to make the electoral system effective from national to local government levels.
“We have to free the (electoral) institutions from the control of the (political) party,” he said while addressing a national dialogue on electoral reform, organised by Governance Advocacy Forum in cooperation with Asia Foundation at CIRDAP auditorium in Dhaka.
The adviser said Bangladesh is yet to strengthen the local government system although such government system is being practiced in the sub-continent over the past century.
Ariff opined that the demand for reformation of the local government should be placed before the elected government as there is no constitutional guarantee of the interim government’s reforms afterwards.
The political will of the elected representatives must be strong and committed to execute the provisions of the laws and make necessary electoral reforms, he said.
The LGRD adviser also opined that the local government bodies face different problems to provide services to people due to lack of authority, manpower, financial constraint and proper management.
He advocated for forming “city government” in the city corporations, and called for lawmaker to advice on conducting development at local level even though there is no compulsion of doing that in laws.
Local Government Division’s secretary Abu Hena Morshed Zaman, Asia Foundation’s executive director Mohsin Ali and country director Kazi Faisal Bin Seraj, and Dhaka University’s teacher Prof Dr Mobasser Monem, also spoke among others.