Poll violations: Strict penalty mooted

A parliamentary committee passed a proposal to toughen penalties against individuals, who commit electoral violations. 

The introduced penalties include jail terms of three years and fines of BD3000. Currently, two years of imprisonment and a fine of BD2000 are enforced on violators. The new proposal  suggests the amendment of the existing Political Rights Law.

The electoral violations include, deliberately making false statements that affect the elections, falsifying and forging documents that related to the polling or election processes, electing while not meeting the necessary requirements of voters, destabilising the voting process and its liberty, voting more than once, insulting members of the committees working during the elections and/or spreading rumours that have an impact on the elections.

The proposal was passed by the Parliament’s Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee, after consulting the Ministry in charge of the parliamentary and municipal elections (Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Ministry).

The Ministry supported the amendment as “it’s introducing appropriate penalties on crimes related to the elections’ processes and have a direct impact on the will of voters.”

The committee added, “The new amendments to the existing law aim at toughening penalties on electoral crimes, so they would be deterrent and the appropriate punishment would be given to violators, who intend to affect voters’ will or the progress of the elections. The subsisting penalties are not compatible to the gravity of the crimes.”

The committee’s report on the matter will be discussed openly during the House of Representatives’ weekly meeting on Tuesday.