Former chief election commissioners (CEC), election commissioners (EC) and election commission secretaries welcomed the decision of current commission in cancelling the by-election of Gaibandha-5 constituency.
They suggested the Election Commissions (EC) to take strong stance by taking punitive actions against the people who were involved in irregularities in that election.
They said if action isn’t taken against the miscreants, the election commissions will have to face multiple questions.
Meanwhile, former ECs also talked about the usage of EVMs in 12th parliamentary election. Some of them support the use, while some of them against it.
As in the election under political government, the deputy commissioners (DC) and Superintendent of Polices (SP) will work according to the demand of it, former ECs suggested the election commission to hold control over civil administration and remove distance with DCs and SPs.
On the other hand, as EVMs and voter lists database are related with NID, former CECs, ECs and secretaries think if NID program goes to other agencies, there’s chance of manipulation and will hamper the freedom of election commissions.
Current members of election commission on Wednesday listen to the experiences shared by former CEC, ECs and secretaries at the Nirbachan Office located in Agargaon of the capital. After the 3-hours long meeting, current CEC Kazi Habibul Awal said, “Former CECs, ECs and election officials supported our actions taken at Gaibandha as these were justified according to legal and constitutional standard.”
However, former election officials didn’t support the matter of transferring NID service from election commission to security service division of home ministry.
In this regard CEC said, “Everyone agreed that NID needs to be under election commission as they’ve sufficient knowledge about the matter.”
He said there were talks for and against the usage of EVMs. People have negative perception about its usage. Hence, it’s necessary to remove such perception.
In the meeting with former commissioners and election officials, the election commission didn’t give any statement for their stance, but highlighted the details regarding cancelling the by-election of Gaibandha. According to CEC, it was technical fault. However, they think they’ve taken big decision for the first time and it created sensation in every level.
In reply to a question of a former colleague over taking action against miscreants at Gaibandha-5 by election, CEC said, “We’re waiting for investigation report and then you’ll see whether we take action or not. Just wait and see.”
Former CEC Abdur Rouf, Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad, KM Nurul Huda, former ECs M Sakhawat Hossain, Md Shahnewaz, Rafiqul Islam, Kabita Khanam, former EC secretaries MM Reza, Dr Md Saidq, Sirajul Islam, Mohammad Abdullah, Helaluddin Ahmed and former additional secretary of EC Jasmin Dhally and Mokhlesur Rahman took part in the meeting, along with the present CEC and ECs.
About the transfer of NID to government, former CEC Abdur Rouf told the journalists, “Information of NIDs may be in different offices, and there’s no problem with it. However, as its parent, election commission will initiate the main tasks regarding it. If it doesn’t belong to EC, then the voters will be perturbed if they see other names instead of theirs in the voters list.”
He said the election commission shouldn’t seat idle if the voters don’t give their votes and one’s vote is done by another. Any free election commission has the right to cancel the election if these kinds of occurrences take place.
Former CEC Kazi Rakib Uddin Ahmad urged for making the people conscious about EVM and activate promotional campaigns in this regard.
He said if the NIDs don’t belong to commission, then people will lose interest to be voters.
Former CEC KM Nurul Huda said the commission has taken right decision based on data and information.
He said, “60-80% votes have been cast where the EVMs were used and the election was ‘fair.’ As the country’s voting environment is not up to the mark, it’s wise to use EVMs instead of ballot papers.”
He remarked as NID is an instrument of election commission, there should be no problem if it’s in the hands of the government. NID is connected to national election and voter lists. There’ll be problems if it’s in the possession of election commission.
Former EC Brigadier General (Rtd.) M Sakhawat Hossain said it’s possible to create rigging in election through EVMs, which is not possible through using ballot papers.
He said, “CC camera should be used wherever the EVMs would be applied. The problem is if rigging is done on ballot papers, it could be find out as that need presence of people, but in case of rigging in EVM it’s hard to identify it— what we’ve seen in Gaibandha.
He welcomed the decision taken by Election commission in Gaibandha and urged them not to slip in next steps.
NID transfer will create complexities and misunderstanding, he added.
The former election officials urged to reduce the distance civil administration. Besides, they suggested controlling the root level administration strictly.
Former CEC Abdur Rouf said as the DC and SPs work in accordance to the order of government, they may not comply to the order of election commission while the elections are held.
Former CEC Nurul Huda also urged the commission to minimize the distance with DCs and SPs.
Former EC Rafiqul Islam said as both EVMs and voter lists are connected to NID database, EC will face problem if it goes directly in the hands of government.
Former election commission secretary Helaluddin Ahmed said if the jobs of returning officers are assigned to anyone other than DCs, then it will be hard to tackle the situation if any unexpected event occurs.
He also urged to minimize the distance of commission with the civil administration.
@The article published on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on October 20, 2022 and rewritten in English by Lutful Hoque
