To institutionalize democracy, the Election Commission (hereinafter referred to as EC or the Commission in brief) has a significant role in conducting an election which is free, fair and participated in by all. The constitutional role of the EC is to prepare an electoral roll, conduct Presidential, parliamentary and other elections, and delimit constituencies for parliamentary elections. 1 It performs a few other responsibilities that complement its above-mentioned work.
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) first carried out a research on the EC in 2006, where the capacity and limitations of the EC in conducting free and fair elections were studied. Subsequently, the EC has undergone a number of institutional and electoral reforms. It may be noted that from amongst 29 of TIB’s recommendations underscored in its previous study, 19 have been implemented so far which, it is beleived, have contributed to strengthening the EC in terms of holding transparent, free and fair elections. Following its initial study, TIB conducted a series of research on different election related issues, which include the tracking of the electoral process (2009), transparency in political finance (2009), and participation of the grassroots in the nomination process in national elections (2010).
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