The Election Commission on Wednesday published the draft of redrawn parliamentary constituencies, with changes in 87 out of the 300 constituencies in view of general elections scheduled for January 2014.
The commission did not change the number of constituencies as they were in each district before the 2008 elections. The number of constituencies in Dhaka remained unchanged although, including the commission, emphasised reduction in the number of Dhaka constituencies.
The chief election commissioner, Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed, after making public the redrawn constituency draft at a press briefing at the EC secretariat, said anyone aggrieved in this connection could take up their objections with the commission till March 10.
‘The commission will put the draft into the final form
for the next elections polls after it will hear the objections,’ Rakibuddin said.
He said that the commission had not changed the number of constituencies in the districts and had kept the demarcation as close as possible to the earlier demarcation.
EC officials told New Age that the demarcation had reflected what parties in the ruling alliance had wanted. ‘The commission has made the changes in line with requests of ministers and lawmakers,’ the commission’s senior assistant secretary said.
The officials said that ruling party leaders such as the state minister for housing and public works Abdul Mannan Khan, the state minister for law Quamrul Islam, the state minister for health Mozibur Rahman Fakir and the Jatiya Party chairman Anwar Hossain Manju had lobbied to have the constituencies redrawn in their favour.
The chief election commissioner at the briefing, however, said, ‘We have redrawn the constituencies according to certain principles, not according to what political parties wanted.’
He said that the commission had ‘taken cognisance of more than 4,000 applications on constituency demarcation.’
On receiving objections to the draft, the commission will hold public hearing in seven divisional headquarters in seven weeks, he added.
‘The gazette will be published after putting the draft into the final form after the public hearing,’ Shah Nawaz said.
Courtesy of New Age
