The Ganatantrik Biplobi Party and the Biplobi Communist League demanded that the interim government, adopting only election-centric ‘essential’ reforms, must hold the national elections by December.
In a dialogue with the National Consensus Commission, held at the LD Auditorium of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban on Tuesday, central leaders of the two left-leaning parties said that the discussions on either ‘minimum’ or ‘relatively greater’ reforms were ‘unnecessary’.
‘Delays in holding the national elections will destabilise the country. The question of ‘relatively greater’ reforms must be dealt with in the next parliament,’ said Iqbal Karim Jahid, general secretary of the Biplobi Communist League.Â
He added that the proposals from the Electoral Reform Commission should add mechanisms to prevent the use of black money, muscle power, and sectarian violence in elections.
The NCC held the dialogue as part of its efforts for consensus-building among political parties on 166 key recommendations put forward by five reform commissions covering constitution, electoral system, judiciary, public administration, and the Anti-Corruption Commission.
Beginning on March 20, the NCC held such dialogues with nine political parties till Tuesday.
In a post-dialogue press briefing, Mosharefa Mishu, general secretary of the Ganatantrik Biplobi Party, said that both left-leaning parties suggested that the fundamental principles of the constitution should be democracy, socialism, secularism, and social justice.
The Constitution Reform Commission proposed equality, human dignity, social justice, pluralism, and democracy as the fundamental principles.
Mosharefa disclosed that the NCC requested the two parties to reconsider their disagreement to the proposed bicameral legislature, amendment to the Article 70 of the constitution and the party registration formula.
The dialogue between NCC and the two left-leaning parties began at 3:00pm and lasted for three hours.
Earlier at 10:00am, the NCC hosted another dialogue with the Jatiyatabadi Ganatantrik Andolan (Nationalist Democratic Movement).
NDM chairman Bobby Hajjaj led an eight-member team to the dialogue.
After the dialogue, Mominul Amin, NDM member-secretary, said his party suggested that the NCC should begin the reform process by banning the Awami League.
He added that his party disagreed to pluralism as a fundamental principle for the constitution, two consecutive tenures for the prime minister while it partially agreed to the formation of a national constitutional council.
The NDM proposed joint chairmanship for the parliamentary standing committees, including MPs from both treasury and opposition benches instead of only from the opposition. Â
‘Except for non-constitutional issues, we demanded that reforms must be carried out by a parliament,’ Amin said.
NCC vice-chair Ali Riaz, members Safar Raj Hossain, Justice Emdadul Haque, Ifetekharuzzaman, and chief adviser’s special assistant Monir Haidar were present in both the dialogues.