UNB:

The government on Thursday approved the draft RPO (Amendment), barring fugitives from contesting elections and reintroducing a ‘No’ vote option in constituencies with a single candidate.

The Council of Advisers cleared the draft Representation of the People (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025 (RPO) in its weekly meeting, held at the Chief Adviser’s Office with Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus in the chair.

Besides disqualifying court-declared fugitives and reintroducing the ‘No’ option, the draft RPO also raises the security deposit for candidates to Tk 50,000 from the previous Tk 20,000. It further drops the provision for using electronic voting machines (EVMs).

In the proposed law, the authority of the Election Commission was restored to cancel the election of an entire constituency in case of irregularities in even few polling stations as well as the definition of law enforcement agency was expanded to include the armed forces – Army, Navy and Air Force, which pave the way for the armed forces to act as law enforcing agencies in the election like other traditional agencies including police, armed police battalion, Rab, Ansar, BGB and coast guard.

“The provisions related to EVMs have been dropped. The definition of law enforcement agencies includes the Army, Navy and Air Force. The provision that fugitives who are absconding in various cases will not be able to contest in the elections has been included,” said Law Adviser Asif Nazrul while briefing reporters at the Foreign Service Academy after the meeting.

Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam spoke at the briefing.

In response to a question, he clarified, “A fugitive means someone who has been declared absconding by a court after ignoring its summons and public notices. When a court officially declares someone absconding during trial, that person becomes ineligible to contest elections.”

Raising other proposed changes, Asif Nazrul said an aspirant must disclose his incomes earned from local and foreign sources and the statement of his assets in home and abroad during the submission of nomination papers.

“The Chief Adviser has instructed that candidates running in the elections must provide details of all their income, assets, both domestic and foreign, to the Election Commission,” he said.

The Chief Adviser also ordered these statements public on the website so everyone will know who is contesting the election in your area, how much income they have, where their incomes come from, and how much assets they have, said Asif Nazrul.

According to the proposed law, he said if two or more registered political parties set up a joint candidate in a constituency, the contestant must run the polls with his own party’s symbol, not partner’s symbol.

About the reintroduction of ‘No’ vote option, he said, “The provision of ‘No’ vote has been added. If there is a single candidate, there will be a ‘No’ vote. Arrangements have been made to prevent recurrence of the 2014 fake election. Now, you can vote ‘No’ if you dislike the sole candidate.”

According to the proposed RPO, the media representative will be allowed to stay during the vote count, he added.

About the postal balloting system, the law adviser said those who are busy with election duty such as law enforcement agency members, presiding officers or returning officers, and the expatriate Bangladeshis who are abroad will vote through the postal ballots.

Earlier, the Election Commission sent the proposed RPO to the law ministry to turn into a law ahead of the 13th parliamentary election planned to be held in early February 2026.

As the government has cleared the draft RPO, now the President will promulgate the proposed law as an ordinance.

According to the Article 19 of the proposed RPO, if there is only one candidate after the withdrawal of candidacy, the election shall be held between the sole candidate and the ‘No Vote’ option.

If the number of ‘No Vote’ exceeds the number of votes received by the contesting candidate, a fresh election shall be held in that constituency by announcing a fresh schedule. But there shall be no ‘No Vote’ option in the subsequent election and if there is also a single candidate, then he shall be declared elected.

As per the article 25 of the proposed law a presiding officer could stop the polling of the concerned polling station, if it is interrupted beyond control, or if ballot boxes are unlawfully removed, destroyed, lost or tampered to such extent that the result of the poll at the polling station cannot be ascertained.

But the current RPO does not permit a presiding officer to stop polling before seeking help from law enforcement agencies and failing to restore order.

The authority of a presiding officer curtailed during the amendment to RPO in 2023 before the 12th parliamentary election held on January 7, 2024.