Why the EC must be overhauled, now!
It took a really sinister turn when be continued to flout orders of the High Court Division to update the existing roll instead of going ahead with his pet project of a fresh one. It is only when the highest court of law in the country, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, where he had been serving as a justice prior to his appointment as CEC, ordered for updating the existing list in keeping with the existing practices in this regard, did Justice Aziz stop openly flouting it, and appear to have very grudgingly asked his people to go from house to house to prepare the list.
Why I call it "very grudgingly" is apparent from the gross irregularities in the list, having unpardonable omissions of eligible voters, often of an entire village or neighbourhood, as we gather from reporting of both electronic and print media. And the much-talked-about false voters' inclusion is admittedly there in the list prepared by the EC.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. The enumerators sent after the orders of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court to enlist eligible voters by going from house to house must have, I suspect, had some sort of an order not to do their works properly. They must have been sent perhaps to give an appearance of abiding by the court's order, not really to follow it.
As one of the television channels reported the other day, enumerators, who went to some of the apartment complexes in Gulshan area, did not care to go to all the apartments, and enlisted only a few of the eligible voters, leaving the rest in the lurch.
The experience of this writer, and that of many others living in apartment houses in Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara, and Dhanmondi areas of the city, as gathered after discussing with many of them, is similar in pattern. An enumerator paid a hurried visit to some of the apartments in a complex, got some forms filled in, never to return with the receipt, which, I am told, is supposed to have been given.
And in an unprecedented practice of enumeration, witnessed this year, the hurried enumerator, if an apartment was lucky to receive one, filled in forms for male voters only (receipt whereof was never given, incidentally). When asked about enrolment of female voters, he said that a separate enumerator (a female one, as he said) would come to enlist the female voters. And that promised female enumerator never came.
This happened not only in the present writer's and his neighbours' apartments only but also in many of the other apartments in the neighbourhoods mentioned above. In one interesting development, the wife of a living ex-CEC, who, in her own rights, is a fairly well-known poetess of the country, has been left out of the voter list in the manner narrated above.
This, we have reasons to suspect, cannot be accidental. Can it be presumed that the female voters of unknown loyalty have been left out so that roughly an equivalent number of "fake" female voters of proven loyalty can be made to vote for candidates of a certain political affiliation?
This mechanism is easy with female voters, who might wear "burkha," especially in city areas, where nobody around recognizes such voters. With a loyal Election Commission and very pliant election officials this mechanism can be deployed with a silky smoothness, and make a candidate winner, who might otherwise have lost had genuine voters been properly enlisted and allowed to vote for the candidate of their choice.
Despite the political turmoil created around the Election Commission and its voter list, and the government's belated admission of mistakes therein, nothing substantial appears to have been done to rectify the errors. I have so far received no visitor from the EC, nor have any of the many friends and acquaintances I have talked to, although some or all of the eligible voters of those households are left out of the voter list.
We are becoming increasingly convinced that this so-called attempt at rectification is merely a propaganda technique to provide a sop to national and international public opinion, and nothing more. After all that has happened and is still happening, one need not have a particular political affiliation to understand that the Election Commission as it now stands, even without Justice Aziz, either does not mean to hold, or is simply incapable of holding, a free and fair election, the cornerstone of a democratic system of government.
The so-called reform of the EC, so far attempted, has starkly exposed the political bias and pathetic incompetence of the reformers, whoever they may be.
A credible election is a sine qua non for democracy, and the need for an unbiased, neutral, efficient and independent Election Commission is simply a must to cause that to happen. I, along with the rest of the unbiased people home and abroad, would have been happy if it could be said of the present Election Commission even with the CEC being on forced leave.
The jolt that democracy would get, and the permanent and irreparable damage that this country would suffer, if we fail to hold the next election in a free, fair and credible manner, is too bad to contemplate. We would therefore urge upon all the players in the field, including the president of the country, who has, unfortunately, already made his role questionable by taking a series of debatable decisions, to bring their thoughts back on course for the long-term interests of the country and democracy to re-constitute the Election Commission, changing the existing one lock, stock, and barrel, and encourage the reformed EC to seriously cross- check the countrywide voter list before the nation goes to the next polls.
A lot of experts have already said that there is no constitutional bar to extending the tenure of the caretaker government beyond ninety days. The president must do it to hold a credible election. If he does so, he risks displeasing the people who brought him to his present position, but history will judge him as a great saviour of democracy and long-term interests of the nation.
Rarely has so much depended on one single individual of almost unmentionable political background, in the not-too long history of this nation, for the welfare of the country as it now does on the president. Would he not, at this fag end of his life and career, rise to the occasion and render one excellent historical service to his nation?