April 13: The government has plans to introduce an electronic voting system with a view to making the election process more transparent and credible.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Tuesday divulged the matter when outgoing UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Bangladesh Renata Lok Dessallien paid a farewell call on her at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Referring to use of transparent ballot boxes in the last general elections, Hasina said that her present government is actively considering adaptation of modern technologies for making election process more transparent and free from debate in near future.
She put utmost importance on uninterrupted democracy for development and said that her government has taken various measures to strengthen parliamentary democracy in the country.
In this context, she told the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative that her government has already strengthened Election Commission (EC) in this connection.
Hasina mentioned that a strong opposition is very much important to make the democracy fruitful and said her government wants to see a strong opposition in parliament for the sake of vibrant parliamentary democracy.
In this connection she said that her government appointed chairmen of seven parliamentary standing committees in the Jatiya Sangsad from the opposition, so that they could play their role in the process of further strengthening the parliamentary democracy.
She also mentioned that during her last visit to Sweden, she included one parliament member from opposition BNP.
The Prime Minister said her government has created immense scope for the opposition MPs to play their due role in Parliament.
But, she regretted that when her party was in the opposition they did not get enough time to speak for the people during BNP-Jamaat alliance government.
“The then speaker during the four party alliance government rejected at least 2,000 questions submitted by the opposition Awami League,” she said.
Referring to the present power crisis in the country, she said her government is making all out efforts to solve the crisis although the situation was created by the BNP led 4-party alliance government.
“We have already undertaken short, mid and long term programmes to increase power generation to meet growing demand,” she said.
The Prime Minister said this situation has worsened as not a single megawatt electricity was produced during the tenure of BNP-Jamaat government and two years tenure of the caretaker government.
Sheikh Hasina thanked the UNDP for extending its support in Bangladesh specially for strengthening local government institutions and parliamentary democracy.
In reply, Renata also thanked the government for extending its support to discharge her duties in Bangladesh smoothly. She hoped that the UNDP’s support to the country’s development endeavors would continue in future.
During the meeting, they discussed UNDP’s support to Bangladesh for strengthening democratic institutions and parliamentary democracy.
Press Secretary to the Prime Minister Abul Kalam Azad, who was present at the meeting, briefed the reporters.
Ambassador At-Large M Ziauddin, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister M A Karim, and Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office Molla Waheeduzaman, among others, were present during the meeting.//UNBConnect.com.
THE DAILY INDEPENDENT
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