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Voting rights of expatriates and felons: What does

the law say?
Published : Saturday, 5 January, 2019 at 12:00 AM Count : 624
S M Shahidullah Mamun

S M Shahidullah Mamun

It is a matter of appreciation that present government has

arranged as well as managed all necessary steps to prevent
any unexpected violation of voting rights in 11th
parliamentary election where a landmark victory has been
achieved by Hasina's Government which reflects a
democratic-ruling of her previous term. But when
someone is deprived of their voting rights then does it
reflect an absolute democracy. In this regard scholars say
'No'.

In Bangladesh, everyone has right to vote as human rights

but in practice we observe that 'Expatriates' and 'Felons'
are being deprived of their valuable rights to vote and it is
a current burning question in our country.

If we look to the national legislations regarding right to vote then we can see that article 122 of the
Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and section 7 of Electoral Rolls Act 2009 (Act 6
of 2009) ensures that rights denoting- "The elections to Parliament shall be on the basis of adult
franchise. A person shall be entitled to be enrolled on the electoral roll for a constituency delimited for
the purpose of election to the Parliament, if he - (a) is a citizen of Bangladesh; (b) is not less than
eighteen years of age; (c) does not stand declared by a competent court to be of unsound mind; (d) is
or is deemed by law to be a resident of that constituency; and (e) has not been convicted of any
offence under the Bangladesh Collaborators (Special Tribunals) Order, 1972.]"

In this regard, section 8 of the Electoral Rolls Act 2009 defines and clarifies the term 'resident' except
including any provisions regarding 'expatriates' and 'felons' but it should be included as they are also
the citizens of Bangladesh in pursuance to the spirit of article 6 of the Constitution of the Peoples'
Republic of Bangladesh.

Now, if we reflect back at the history of voting right of the 'expatriates' then we can see that in 2007/8
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the caretaker government Fakhruddin Ahmed raised the word in ensuring expatriates' voting right but
later on Election Commission (EC) expressed their limitations and barriers in implementing that
rights.

Afterwards, in 2009 when the government of Sheikh Hasina returned to her kingdom, her government
again introduced a bill namely "Voter's Roll Bill" in order to ensure expatriates' voting right and then
in 2013 she proposed to amend the "Representation of People Order 1972" with a view to enabling
expatriates' voting right from abroad but it a matter of sorrow that this step was also failed to
implement because of a few complexity of voting process.

On the other hand, the spirit of article 7 (1) of the Constitution of the Peoples' Republic of Bangladesh
empowers the people of Bangladesh, as they belong to all the powers, to elect their representatives
where article 27 ensures equality before law and article 28 (3) stipulates non-discrimination of citizens
on any grounds. Besides these, article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 25
of the International Convention on the Civil and Political Rights also ensure the right to vote for all
people as one kind of human rights. But our constitution still now has not recognized the voting right
of 'Felons' and 'Expatriates' as fundamental rights where about 10 million citizens of Bangladesh lives
in abroad and this indiscipline stands as a bar to ensure democratic practice. So, as far as possible this
right should be properly ensured by implementing as well as amending necessary legislations and
should also be recognized as fundamental right of the citizens.

The writer is a legal-researcher upon constitutional issues

Editor : Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury

Phone: +9586651-58, email: info@observerbd.com

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