Rastro Songskar Andolan wants constitutional reforms through referendum before elections

The Rastro Songskar Andolan, or State Reform Movement, has proposed that reforms be made to the Constitution through public voting before the general election is held.

It agreed on 151 out of 166 propositions presented by the Consensus Commission in a meeting at the LD Hall, said the party’s Chief Coordinator Hasnat Kaiyum.

A seven-member delegation sat with the commission for a meeting from 9am to 11:30am on Sunday.

“We’re ready to accept reforms to the Constitution through referendums if the political parties agree,” he said.

Of the 15 other proposals, the Rastro Songskar Andolan partially agreed to 10 while disagreeing with five. The party also presented two additional views, he said.

Kaiyum said the party would accept the referendum through implementing the changes “everyone agreed on” based on “how much reform is needed”.

He clarified that the reforms should be made “before or alongside” the parliamentary elections, so that elected MPs had no control over the changes.

“It could be a referendum or an election for a constitutional reform assembly,” he added.

The Consensus Commission led by Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus began working on Feb 15 with the aim of holding discussions with parties and political forces to form a national consensus and review the recommendations made by the reform panels ahead of the next parliamentary elections.

After the fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime in the face of the student-led mass uprising on Aug 5 last year, an interim government headed by Yunus took over and formed 11 reform commissions to drive state reform initiatives.

Eight commissions, including the constitutional, electoral, judiciary, public administration, Anti-Corruption Commission, police reform, local government and media reform panels, have already submitted their reports.

The healthcare, labour and women’s affairs panels have yet to submit their reports.

The consensus commission had asked 38 political parties to submit their positions on these recommendations by Mar 13.

The commission began discussing reform proposals with political parties from Mar 20.

IMPLEMENTATION POSSIBLE IN 6 MONTHS

In the dialogue with the Consensus Commission, Kaiyum said the Rastro Songskar Andolan suggested that the Secularism Policy be renamed.

The article that included secularism alongside pluralism, has been replaced by a section that states religious freedom and communal harmony, leaving everything else intact.

Kaiyum also said that they proposed that citizen’s courts be established in every district to ensure fundamental rights.

“Additionally, we’ve proposed to set up district governments across 19 older districts, providing them with financial and administrative liberty.”

Along with these, the party also proposed the institution of a financial tribunal similar to the International Crimes Tribunal.

Kaiyum believes that the recommendations can be realised within six months.

On the BNP’s allegations that non-elected individuals were being put in charge of important responsibilities, he said: “We support the National Constitutional Council. Naturally, the NCC [National Citizens’ Council] will have more elected representatives.”

“But if they’ve more representatives during the caretaker government, it would seem that the number of non-elected representatives is higher. It does not contradict the concept of a caretaker government.”