EC's credibility must be restored

One of the things that needs to be addressed in the aftermath of the Dhaka-10 debacle is the role of the Election Commission which is tasked with ensuring that elections are free and fair. From the start, it appeared that the EC was not up to the job. The EC did not act when rules governing campaigning and electioneering were broken with impunity and seemed all at sea over the issue of the allocation of the election symbol to candidate Mannan.

Nor did the EC have any apparent strategy in place to thwart the massive rigging that took place, and witnessed the process as a more or less mute spectator. The scale of the rigging was obvious from early on in the process, but the EC appeared powerless to do anything to rectify the situation.

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The EC has since stated that, yes, there were irregularities but not sufficient to warrant cancellation of the by-election, which leads one to wonder what exactly would constitute sufficient grounds. One would have thought that the expulsion of polling agents, the busing in of fake voters, and widespread ballot stuffing, all of which were observed and catalogued by the election monitors, would be more than enough.

It will be worthwhile to note that the Chief Election Commissioner's absence cast a shadow over the conduct of the by-election sapping the confidence with which the task could be accomplished with him at the helms. We can understand his personal reasons for taking the leave of absence, but it did foster a confusion-laden indecisiveness about the way in which his colleagues approached and handled the task.

For all their imperfections, the general elections that have been held since 1991 have been free and fair, and more importantly, have been seen to be free and fair by the general public, who have therefore chosen to abide by the results. If the general public no longer feels that the election process is above suspicion, then they will no longer consider the government so elected legitimate. The resulting damage to the democratic process and our unity as a nation would be incalculable.

The credibility of the EC must be restored ahead of the 2006 general elections.