The militarily backed Interim Government of Bangladesh gave a nod to amending the Representation of People Order (RPO) 1972. Earlier government was to frame out a new electoral law instead of the old one. On August 6, 2008, the council of advisors of the interim government approved the Representation of People (Amendment) Order Ordinance 2008. The council meeting was chaired by the Chief Advisor of the interim government.
The proposed RPO allowed formation of electoral alliance among the registered and unregistered political parties. Earlier, on July 13 the draft ordinance approved in principle had no scope for alliance of registered political parties with non-registered ones. Under the newly approved ordinance, registered political parties are permitted legally to receive donation from person, company or group of companies. The upper limit of donation, property or services from person should not exceed .5 million BDT and 2.5 million BDT from group of companies. No registered political party can take gift or donation or grant from any other country, NGO assisted by foreign aid and non-Bangladeshi. The proposed law suggested that political parties will not have front organizations and that they will exercise in-house democracy and follow guidelines for electoral alliance. Now, the government has decided just to promulgate an amendment ordinance, keeping the content of the 36 years’ old law almost the same and limiting the scopes to bring qualitative changes in politics and elections earlier envisaged by the interim government and the Election Commission.#
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