DHAKA: The Election Commission has finalized the draft of a new rule providing for state financing of elections—a measure recommended by experts for curbing the influence of money in making public representatives.

Election Commissioner Brigadier General (retd) Sakhawat Hossain Sunday made the disclosure at a roundtable on `Local Participation in the Process of National Election Nomination and Expectations` organized by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) at the BRAC Centre in the city with TIB chairman M Hafizuddin in the chair.

"For this reason, the commission would sit with the political parties as soon as possible," Sakhawat said.

At the same time, he added, initiative has been taken for bringing some changes in the electoral rules.    

The commissioner said the initiative to introduce the financing of elections from the public exchequer has been taken to ensure transparency and accountability in the electoral process and election spending.

He alleged that the EC is facing various problems, and there is a bureaucratic problem with the posting of the commission secretary.

"We are going to completely digitize the election commission and that`s why we have taken step to set up a server station in every district," the commissioner told the meet.

He also alleged that the EC is not getting the place for setting up server due to bureaucratic bottlenecks.

Brigadier Sakhawat expressed the apprehension that the project on setting up server might go up in smoke.

He deplored that politicians had looked down upon the election commission as `post office` for 36 years after the independence, until the latest changes were initiated.

"So the election commission could not get the real shape," he said.

The election commissioner also claimed that the national election in 2008 was accelerated as the commission played an important role in setting the stage.

"The election would not have been possible in that time but for our will," he said, indicating the tough task of transition from the emergency regime following the 1/11 changeover.

He said that the commissioners, including the chief election commissioner, would have resigned if they had failed to arrange the polls.

BDST: 1850 HRS, SEPT 5, 2010