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Chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda said Sunday data against war criminals and anti-liberation forces need to be gathered if they were to be stopped from running elections, reports bdnews24.com.
He made the remark at a meeting between the Election Commission and the Sector Commanders' Forum at the Election Commission Secretariat.
The 1971 independence war veterans campaigning for war crimes trial demanded at the meeting that the top electoral office to declare war criminals ineligible for elections.
Huda said the EC was in agreement over the trial of the war criminals and added that they would recommend to the government to take the initiative.
"Many political parties have demanded the trial of the war criminals. We also think that the demand for the trial of war criminals is real and they need to be tried."
"We have been working under limitations as a statutory body. But we cannot do anything since the issue is political. For this, the government has to come forward. We will place our recommendation with the government," he said.
Referring to the draft Public Representation Ordinance 2008 which makes convicts unfit for elections, he said, "Anyone convicted by the court will be unfit for election. Besides, a candidate will lose the seat if he or she furnishes wrong information under the eight-point affidavit.
"If the constitution of a party is contrary to the spirit of the constitution of the country, that party will not be allowed to be registered."
In case of a delay in the legal process, he stressed mounting a social movement in the next election against the war criminals like the one waged by the Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee (Committee for Elimination of Killers and Collaborators of '71).
The six-member delegation led by retired air vice marshal AK Khondakar, Bir Uttam, chairman of the Sector Commanders' Forum, placed a five-point demand. One of the demands is that persons, organisations and parties that opposed the liberation war or committed war crimes be barred from election.
The other demands include a candidate has to spell out his position during the liberation war and give details about the case in case he is an absconder.
Anti-liberation political parties cannot be given registration and if the party constitution goes against the real spirit of the constitution of the country, that party cannot be given registration, according to the charter of demands.
Election commissioner M Sohul Hussain said, "Full unanimity has to be maintained in the declaration that anti-liberation elements and war criminals are unfit for elections. But we have constitutional limitations in matters of execution."
His colleague M Sakhawat Hussain said, "After 37 years we have included the issue of war criminals in the electoral laws. But the Election Commission does not have the right to try them. If a tribunal is set up for war criminals and cases are filed, trial will be held even after a long time."
The election commissioners were unanimous on the issue. He added: "The government has to take the initiative for trial."
AK Khondakar said, "We have had fruitful talks with the EC. The EC has responded to our proposals. We have told the EC that the legal process is not a big thing, the demand of the fifteen crore people carries value.
"From the moral point of view, war criminals shall have to be immediately declared unfit for election and the Election Commission has to proceed with that objective in view".
"After the liberation war, 37,000 war criminals were in jail. Of them, 26,000 were released on pardon. The remaining 11,000 were charged with grievous crimes. Their trial process stopped after the collaborators' act was abrogated."
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