After coming to power in 2001 through election engineering and rigging, the BNP-Jamat alliance started politicization of all the national institutions and state organs. In the process, they have destroyed almost all the state organs and institutions. The only organization left was the Election Commission. At last this institution has also come under allout attack of the alliance government. The attack is aimed at converting it into a subordinate political office of BNP-Jamat. This supposition is confirmed by the recent controversial actions taken by the government and the Chief Election Commissioner.

The Election Commission is a constitutional body entrusted with the responsibility of preparing electoral rolls, conducting elections and all other election related jobs. Democracy and democratic process largely depends on holding of free, fair, neutral and credible election. On the other hand, a correct and valid voter list is sine qua non for holding free and fair election. Lack of any transparency in preparing the voter list may jeopardize the entire process of election. So, everybody would like to see fairness and transparency in the electoral rolls.

Sensing the ill-motive of the Government from the unilateral appointment of a controversial person like Justice M. A. Aziz as the Chief Election Commissioner, the people and the opposition parties became cautious from the very beginning. Appointment of 300 Upazila Election officers belonging to BNP-Jamat made the opposition more suspicious about the intention of the Government. The Election Commission Secretariat which is directly under the Prime Minister’s Office has appointed these partisan officers. This effort of the Government could not be thwarted due to the strong presence of Mr. S. M Zakaria, Secretary, Election Commission Secretariat. Mr. Zakaria is widely known for his wicked role in holding the controversial election of 15 February 1996 under BNP Government without participation of mass voter and recognized political parties. BNP ‘media coup’ is another innovation of Mr. Zakaria. He is also known to be an expert in election engineering and loyal to BNP. So, in recognition of the faithful services rendered by him in bringing the BNP-Jamat alliance to power in 2001 and in expectation of doing the same during the coming election, Mr. Zakaria was rewarded first by promotion as Secretary and then by appointment on contractual basis. Finally, he has been elevated to the post of Election Commissioner on 16 January 2006. This was done in order to ease the ordeals being faced by Justice M. A. Aziz.

What was the ordeal? Justice Aziz was assigned with a mission to prepare a fresh voter list all over the country by ignoring the last voter list prepared in the year 2000. But, he faced serious difficulties in continuing the process initiated from 1st January 2006 due to strong opposition from the two other Commissioners and intervention of the High Court. The Court intervention resulted from 2 writ petitions filed by Advocate M. Rahmat Ali M.P and Mr. M. A. Jalil M.P. The 1st Writ Petition challenged the unilateral decision taken by the Chief Election Commissioner (C.E.C) to prepare a fresh Electoral Roll without consent of the other two Commissioners. The second one challenged the legality of appointing Registration/ Assistant Registration officers, Supervisors and Enumerators to conduct the process. Failing to restrain the C.E.C from preparing a fresh voter list by applying all possible means, these two prominent political leaders and sitting M.P’s were rather forced to take shelter of the court.

They could clearly understand that the course of actons taken by the C.E.C is the outcome of a deep-rooted conspiracy of BNP-Jamat. The conspiracy is nothing but to win the upcoming Parliamentary election by tactfully avoiding the people’s verdict. Understanding that miserable defeat for the BNP-Jamat alliance in a free and fair election has become almost certain, they are not willing to face it. Instead they have chalked out an election engineering plan embodied with some unique techniques. Preparation of fresh voter list by dropping the existing voter list is one of the step towards that plan. The plan is aimed at achieving the following decided objectives:

1. To drop the minority community pockets inclined to Awami League from the voter list.

2. To exclude the people known as Awami League vote-bank from the voter list.

3. Enlisting names of the supporters of the ruling coalition and ignoring those belonging to the opposition.

4. Excluding the voters of the existing voter list belonging to Awami League on the plea that they were not available at the time of visit of the enumerators to their houses.

5. Making the known Awami League supporter voters ineligible to vote or to contest in the election by wrongly recording their names or father’s name, husband’s name or age, etc.

6. Recording the names of the Awami League voters of a particular voter area or ward in the list of other area or ward so that they fail to vote at their designated polling station.

7. Enlisting fake voters or unknown persons in large numbers in the voter list.

Both the print and electronic media were flooded with news of irregularities, anomalies and malpractices of various nature from the very beginning of the enumeration job started from 1 January, 2006.

Under the situation, intervention by the Superior Court became inevitable. After hearing the 2 writ petitions, a High Court Bench comprising of two Learned Judges announced a historic judgment on 4 January, 2006. The relevant part of the judgment runs as under:

(I) It is held that the decision for preparation of Electoral Roll taken in the meeting on 6th of August, 2005 was not unilateral decision of the Chief Election Commissioner rather it was a decision of the Commission for the preparation of the Electoral Roll and appointment of the Registration Officers etc.

(II) The Election Commission of Bangladesh is a composite body and it must function en bloc, that it must function institutionally and not individually. In case of difference of opinion all decision must be taken by majority opinion. The Chief Election Commissioner is at par with other Commissioners on all matters except that the Chief Election Commissioner is the Chairman of the Commission under Article 118(2) and can exercise his sole direction under article 123(4) of the Constitution.

(III) The Commission should prepare Electoral Roll taking the existing Roll maintained under section 7(6) of the Ordinance as a major basis. If there is a computerized database the Commission should make the best use of it and if not, a computerized Electoral Roll with database should always be maintained to avoid future controversy, costs and labour.

(IV) The persons whose names are already in the existing electoral roll cannot be dropped from that roll unless they are dead or have been declared to be of unsound mind or ceased to be residents or ceased to be deemed to be residents of that area or the constituency.

(V) The Chief Election Commissioner should immediately call a meeting of the Commission and the Commission should decide and take all appropriate steps to implement the decision of the Commission taken on 6th August, 2005 in its meeting for preparation of Electoral Roll in the light of this judgments.”

Para (III) to (V) of this judgment are very specific and relevant to the issue. The judgment clearly states that the existing electoral Roll shall be a basis for preparing the voter list under the on going process. This means that the existing voter list shall remain as a valid document. It may be updated or revised by dropping the ineligible voters and incorporating the new eligible voters as per law. But in no case, the persons whose names already exist in the voter list should be dropped unless it is required by law. Para (V) of the Judgment states that the C.E.C should immediately call a meeting of the Commission to decide appropriate steps required to be taken in the light of this judgment i.e. to implement the directives given at Para (III) and (IV).

All sensible people of the country welcome the judgment with the hope that the cloud surrounding the preparation of fresh voter list will now be over. But the C.E.C instead of implementing the directives of the High Court has staged drama after drama to make the judgment in-operative. Some of the dramas staged by him are: -

1. Confining himself in his own office under lock and key.

2. Distancing himself from his other two colleague Commissioners.

3. Delaying receipt of the copy of the judgment and its compliance.

4. Deterring the press and other people from knowing his reactions on the judgment.

5. Absenting from the office by pretending to be sick.

6. Refraining from receiving even telephone calls from his other two colleague Commissioners.

7. Refraining from calling meeting of the present three member Commission as directed by the court.

The above omissions and commissions of the C.E.C were followed by a surprise when the Government expanded the Commission through induction of two new controversial members in a hurriedly taken step on 16 January, 06. The C.E.C also recovered from illness as soon as the two new Commissioners took oath and he had an informal meeting with them at his residence. On the following day, the C.E.C attended the office with a clean fitness certificate and convened a meeting of the Commission on 20 January, 2006.

It is clear that the C.E.C staged all these dramas in connivance with the government who readily came to his rescue. These were done with the ill intention of achieving the following objectives:

1. Refraining from implementing the High Court directives (which amounts to contempt of court).

2. Deferring holding of Commission’s meeting with its present three members in anticipation of strong opposition from the other two members about his unilateral decision on preparing fresh voter list.

3. Allowing time to the Government for appointing two more like minded Commissioners so that his controversial decision may be upheld in a meeting of the Commission on the strength of majority to be gained through induction of more members.

4. Continuation of the ongoing process of preparing new voter list, totally ignoring the High Court decission.

All these objectives of the C.E.C were achieved when a decision to appeal against the High Court judgment was taken in the meeting of the newly constituted Commission on 20 January, 06. With the sudden appointment of two new controversial members and the outcome of the meeting of 20 January, 06, the whole nation was at dismay. The reasons for such dismay are-

1. Mr. S.M Zakaria who is widely known to be a strong party loyalist of BNP and an expert in election engineering has been inducted in the Commission as a member.

2. Another BNP loyalist Justice Mahfuzur Rahman whose integrity is questionable has also been made a member. During the last ‘Operation Clean Heart” illegal arms were recovered from his residence and the accused was his brother-in-law.

3. The controversial on-going operation for preparing new voter list has not been stopped.

4. Decision to prefer appeal against the verdict of the High Court defying opposition from the other two senior members of the commission.

5. Connivance among the Government, the C.E.C and the two newly inducted members.

6. Politicization of the Election Commission and making it a subordinate office of BNP-Jamat.

From the above actions, inactions and attitude of the C.E.C and the Government, it appears that none but the people supporting BNP-Jamat alliance have the right to become a voter or be enlisted in the electoral roll. In the previous elections, BNP-Jamat alliance through different mechanism and malpractices deprived the people from their right to vote. Now, they are attempting to deprive the people from their constitutional right to be enrolled as voters. It seems that they have made the voters as their opponent in the coming election.

Why do they feel so? Due to their failure to ensure good Governance and indulgence in corruption, the government of alliance is likely to be rejected by the people. So, the voters are going to get an opportunity to reject them in the next election. But, the alliance is determined not to allow them this opportunity. This time, the fight will not be against their long-time natural rival Awami League, but the 70 million voters of the country. Thus, the present dilemma surrounding the Election Commission and preparation of voter list is nothing but a part of their blue print to avoid the probable ‘No confidence’ from the millions of voters.

The people are seriously aggrieved by the ill motivated actions of the Government and the C.E.C. They have started expressing their anger over the issue through mass demonstrations, public rally and even by burning the effigy of Justice M.A. Aziz, in different parts of the country.

In line with the reactions of the general mass, the 14 Party Alliance led by Awami League also identified the partisan role being played by the C,E.C to be dangerous. The newly appointed two controversial Commissioners have contributed dimension in the wrong doings of the C.E.C. They also find that the illegal and controversial steps so far taken by the Government and the C.E.C. are nothing but groundwork for election engineering. These give clear signals of manipulating the upcoming general election in order to bring the BNP-Jamat alliance into power again. Thus, the Election Commission has lost its credibility as a constitutional body. The freedom loving people of the country also fear that such motivated unholy actions will have serious consequences. Under the situation, the 14-party alliance have rightly put forward the following demands for ensuring free, fair and credible election in the Country.

1. Immediate removal of Justice M.A. Aziz, C.E.C and the newly appointed two controversial Commissioners.

2. Updating/revising the electoral roll of 2000 in the light of the directives of the High Court and abandoning the ongoing process of preparing fresh voter list.

3. Reforming the Election Commission, electoral system and Caretaker Government in accordance with the electoral reform proposals announced by the 14 Party Alliance on 15th July 2005.

Footnote :

A 3-member European Union team ‘TROIKA’ arrived Dhaka on 23rd January. It is led by Nicholaus Scherk. Director for Asia Pacific at the Austrian Foreign Ministry, representing the EU Presidency. Other two members are Pekka Metro of Finland and Michael Swann of Italy. The team exchanged views on the existing political condition, election commission and election process, rise of fundamentalism and likely role of EU in the ensuing election etc. with the government, opposition party, representative of civil society, NGO, diplomats and development partners. The team expressed their frank and open opinion on the defects of election system in Bangladesh, control of Prime Minister’s office on Election Commission, necessity of an independent and neutral Election Commission and ensuring free and fair election. Surprising but true, the extreme partisan Chief Election Commissioner M.A. Aziz in a second time dramatic move, got admitted in hospital on the pretext of illness only to avoid a pre-arranged meeting with ‘Troika’. This type of mean maneuver by a person, holding highly important constitutional post of the country, proves beyond doubt his partisanship as well as his lack of personality, incompetence and unfitness for this important post and the job.

And if he is really ill and unable to perform the job, it is reasonable that he should resign or be impeached as per constitution:

Newsletter _______________________
Vol. 5, No. 1, January 28, 2006
Bangladesh Awami League Publication