Staff Correspondent:

The Election Commission (EC) is going to recommend to the government a set of electoral reforms that are above political debate and could be implemented without delay, but won’t require political consensus, said Election Commissioner Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah on Wednesday.

“We’ve finalised the recommendations that could be implemented immediately. We will send them on Wednesday he told reporters after a meeting of the commission in the capital.

The meeting was held with Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin in the chair, while all four election commissioners and the EC senior secretary were present.

He said the government earlier asked the EC to propose reforms that are eligible for immediate implementation.

Sanaullah explained that the EC categorized the reform proposals into three types – those that can be implemented immediately without political consensus, those that need political agreement, and those relating to rules that the EC can amend on its own.

He said the commission is not commenting on proposals that require political consensus at this stage.

“There are also reforms under the EC’s jurisdiction, such as amendments to rules, which we can implement by ourselves,” he added.

EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said the EC finalized 10-12 reform proposals that don’t require political consensus and financial funds.

For example, the suggestion to include a watermark on ballot papers has financial involvement. “So, we do not consider it ready for immediate implementation,” Akhtar said.