EC selects 68 poll monitoring organizations

Staff Reporter :
The Election Commission (EC) has selected 68 non-governmental organizations of the country as preliminarily registrable as ‘Election Observing Organizations’ ahead of the upcoming 12thparliament elections.

The EC released the list of organizations on Tuesday and said that if there are any claims or objections regarding these organizations, they should be reported in writing within the next 15 days.

However, the list showed that the Abed Ali’s two organizations that were discussed and criticized – Election Monitoring Forum (EMF) and SAARC Human Rights Foundation (SHRF)- have not been considered eligible for registration as monitoring organizations.

Both these organizations also applied for registration. Abed Ali is the Chairman of Election Monitoring Forum and Secretary General of SAARC Human Rights Foundation.

The SAARC Human Rights Forum was criticized for bringing some inexperienced foreign nationals as observers in the last national election in 2018.

This time, before the elections, the Election Monitoring Forum brought some foreign nationals to the country and introduced them as ‘foreign observers’.

According to EC sources, EC had registered 118 local organizations before the 11th parliamentary elections in 2018. Already the five-year registration period of these organizations has expired. The EC invited applications for fresh registration this year.

This time ahead of twelfth parliamentary elections, 199 organizations for registration as observer organizations.

The concerned committee of the EC Secretariat submitted the list of 94 organizations out of 199 to the Election Commission after preliminary verification. Today the Election Commission preliminarily selected 68 organizations for registration.

Election Commissioner,Md. Ahsan Habib Khan said that the Election Commission Secretariat has selected the applicants for registration after properly verifying the necessary information and thoroughly following the election monitoring policy.

Meanwhile, the registration period for local observer organizations is five years.

Registered organizations have the opportunity to observe national and local government elections held during this period.