EC working on amendment to allow suspension of political parties

The Elections Commission (EC) is working on an amendment to allow the suspension of political parties found to be in violation of laws.

EC’s Vice President Ahmed Akram revealed this during an interview to VTV.

As per the current Political Parties Act, parties violating laws are subject to fines and ultimately dissolution.

Noting that political parties are established with hard work from a number of individuals, Akram said that he does not believe that the current measures are fair.

Hence, he said that they need to come up with a solution that will give parties an additional opportunity prior to dissolution and added that the work to draft such an amendment to the Political Parties Act is ongoing.

As per this draft, parties are required to hold congress within a certain period and failure to do so will result in automatic suspension. Then, Akram said the party will be given a deadline to hold congress, and added that it will not be allowed to hold any additional party activities during this period.

Some other amendments that EC is seeking to the Political Parties Act include making it the main registrar for political parties, requiring parties’ to submit yearly audit report before February 28, releasing funds to parties before March 31 and reserving 33 percent of of parties’ leadership for women.

Akram said that the drafts to the Act will be forwarded to the Attorney General’s Office “soon” but only after seeking opinion from political parties as well as the public.