How far is the election?

Since he took office Justice M.A.Aziz, perhaps unwittingly has caused one controversy after another. His latest is that it must be the voters who have to go to the election commission authorities to get themselves registered. One wonders what is the need then to keep an expensive outfit like the election commission at public expense?

Let us start from the beginning. Quite early during the preparation for the upcoming elections, a high powered delegation from the European Union (EU) paid a visit to Dhaka to discuss with the Chief Election Commissioner whether the EU could provide any assistance for the elections. The CEC became sick during the day and was hospitalised and became well at night in order to enjoy the comfort of home. No wonder the EU delegation was frustrated. Then came the Supreme Court directive of 4 January stating that the voters' list must be updated and no new voters' list was to be prepared. The CEC defying the order of the highest judiciary went ahead with preparation of a fresh voters' list. He did this in the face of objections from his two colleagues, who pointed out that this was going against the rules and the order of the High Court. He appointed thousands of enumerators and prepared a faulty voters' list costing the exchequer crores of taka.

The voters' list generated extraordinary controversy as fake voters were galore, stranded Pakistanis were registered against their wishes and in many cases minorities were left out. From the voters list it was evident that the CEC had either malafide intentions or wanted to cause confusion of the worst kind. While preparing the fresh voters' list the CEC had gone to the court asking them to pronounce on the question of the fresh voters' list or updating the earlier list. The court simply upheld its earlier judgment of 4 January. In other words the CEC's labour of fresh voter list was wasted. The moot point arises, if the CEC should not refund the crores of taka that he has wasted by his obstinacy?

The CEC after a long wait has accepted the judgment of the Supreme Court but only partially. For he wants that voters should visit the offices of the Election Commission and enroll themselves. In Bangladesh this procedure is unheard of. This is bound to generate fresh controversy. The entire opposition has ranged against the CEC and his two colleagues, who are accused of blatant partiality, and are demanding their resignation. The office of the Chief Election Commissioner is supposed to be manned by fair and neutral personalities. But this is far from the case and, therefore, the opposition is demanding their resignation. So far the CEC enjoys complete support from the government. Yet the pressure against the CEC and his two colleagues is relentlessly mounting and a situation of stalemate has been created. This has put the whole exercise of Election-2007 under a cloud.

The present four-party alliance government has stacked the deck by preparing former Chief Justice K.M.Hasan as the next head of the caretaker government. The concept of the caretaker chief has been that he should be totally neutral. In order to place Justice Hasan at the head of the caretaker government, the Constitution has been amended and the tenure of the judges has been extended by two years. Justice Hasan has been Ambassador of former ruler of Bangladesh Gen. Ziaur Rahman in Baghdad as well as a member of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). That his neutrality and objectivity would come under question goes without saying.

The present government is due to hand over power to the head of the caretaker government in October this year. Already the opposition has announced that it will not join the elections under the present Election Commission. With the addition of such head of the caretaker government, it would be simply astonishing if the opposition joins the elections.

The question naturally arises whether the ruling BNP has so stacked the decks that they virtually spoil the elections or create such chaos and confusion that it happens to be a recipe for others to spoil it. Bangladesh has managed so far to hold three elections, which though not a model of fair elections has been accepted by the people. Let us hope that the ruling party does not stretch public credulity beyond endurance.

Arshad-uz-Zaman is a former Ambassador.