Why your stay in office should not be declared immoral?

The CEC's unilateral move to prepare a new voter list was challenged in the High Court (HC) which, after due deliberations, asked the EC to go for an updated version on the basis of discussions with EC members. The CEC - himself Justice of the Supreme Court - bypassed that verdict of the HC and continued with his new voter list. Meantime, he also appealed to the Supreme Court (SC) against the verdict of the HC and for a support for his deeds under constitutional cover.

As everyone knows, a fair and transparent voter list is a sine qua non for a free and fair election and for institutionalization of democracy in the country. But the way it was handled by the EC, especially by its captain the CEC, appeared to cast serious doubt on the neutrality of the EC management. Even the EC itself was alleged to have been involved in making fake voters list by instructing field level officers to include fake voters. None of the EC stalwarts could come up with reply to the allegations raised by the media. Assuming that the drive to make a new voter list the brain child of the CEC is acceptable, the oddities developed around such an exercise clearly calls for resignation of the three persons mentioned above, due to their utter negligence of duties and failure to realize the ramifications of the process on our national life.

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But on that Tuesday, when we tabled our argument, the Supreme Court (SC) rejected the appeal of the CEC and upheld the verdict of the HC with a distinct note that EC should base the voter list on the earlier one. Thus, according to SC also, the process of completing a new voters list was held not to be in consort with the constitutional provisions of the country. According to the opinion of the SC, what EC should have strived at is not a new but updated voters list. We expected that the CEC and his "comrades" would immediately come down from the EC dais and save the nation from additional crisis in the days to come. On Thursday last, readers may recall, all the leading newspapers in the country demanded the resignation of the CEC and other two members, particularly in the wake of growing resentment and suspicion over the conduct of a fair election by them. Some of the leading newspapers also wrote commentaries, interviews by civil society members were telecast and stories ran galore about the ways EC has been made an office of the ruling alliance.

But till today, no news on that score has come to us and we are shocked to see that Justice M A Aziz, Messers Zakaria and Mahfuzur Rahman are still clinging to their posts, possibly, to put the last nail on the coffin of a free and fair election in 2007.

But we think now, as we thought before, that their stay in office is immoral and unethical, although the stay could be construed as legal. Hence, we shall present a few arguments for their resignation.

First, the CEC has violated constitutional norms by going for a new voters' list, despite the fact that electoral rules do not permit that. Secondly, he did not care to abide by the decision of the HC that opined that the norm be upheld. He should have stopped the whole process till the verdict of SC came. Thirdly, when the HC instructed to take decisions taking into cognizance the opinions of other two members, the CEC committed certain offences. For example, he abstained from attending the office; pushed forward the argument of his ailment that justified his abstention from office; waited till the government had selected two members to support him; organised a meeting only after the two new members had joined to ensure a majority, and finally went for an appeal, against the opinion of the two erstwhile members. The whole alleged 'grievous game' -- hardly becoming of a Justice of the SC -- goes against the very basics of morality of the CEC. We also feel that the other two members of EC, by sharing the game with the CEC, also became party to this pitiable position and hence cannot escape the allegation of a lack of morality in them.

On another side, the EC spent Tk 600 million just to satisfy the whims of the current CEC in processing the new voters' list. Now it seems that the money -- that could be used to build 300 primary schools with modern facilities, immunize 60 lakh children, help 6 lakh poor families with credit @ Tk.10, 000 each and so on -was simply wasted. The wastage of public money to pursue one's own goal is an act of immorality. According to government audit rules -- as experts put it -- the costs of a project not approved by country's rules and regulations should be recouped from the pockets of the persons engaged in such a deal.

It is true -- as opined by Abdul Mannan Bhuiya and others -- that the posts of CEC and other two members are constitutional and the Government cannot remove them, even if it desires to do so. But Mr Bhuyia should know that, beyond the boundary of legality, there is also a question of morality or ethics upon which an ordinary citizen should ride, not to speak of a personality like the CEC.

We strongly feel that Justice M A Aziz and his two "comrades" are trying to mess up things further by clinging to the posts for which they are not deemed fit. They have already become controversial in their deeds. We do not think that the opposition is going to participate in any election held under their supervision and "engineering". Nor do we think that any one worth the reasons within the ruling party would support their acts. The best way for the "gentlemen" in this situation would be to look for an exit and thus save themselves from public wrath. Meantime, Mr. CEC, please explain why your stay in office should not be declared immoral by the public of this country, if not by the party in power.

Abdul Bayes is a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University.