EC contriving crisis?

The most serious complaint against EC has been that it is bent upon arranging a general election for 2007 that could be riddled with election engineering including vote rigging. Arguably, a first step towards that was the 'invention' of the idea of a new voter list. While the whole nation stood against such a move terming it as unconstitutional and unprecedented, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) alone went ahead with the proposition. In consequence and meantime, a total of Tk.600 million was spent in producing one of the most scandalous voter lists in country's history. It became soon crystal clear that the 'special means' (new voter list) was targeted towards a 'specific end' (favouring a particular group in the election). The cat came out of the bag. Quite obviously, in spirit, the movement by the opposition was heralded against the present bizarre activities of the EC under the alleged 'partisan' CEC Justice MA Aziz and his two associates on board with a 'maligned' motive.

That the allegations brought against by the opposition are just has been forestalled by the recent verdict of the Supreme Court (SC). The verdict called for an updated version of the voter list implying that the voter list should contain the previous voters (unless dead or mad) plus those who graduated to 18. We all expected that the CEC and his two Commissioners would resign from EC immediately after hearing the verdict. Mainly for two reasons they should have done that. First, they lost the legal battle that indicated that they were pursuing an illegal act at huge cost from the treasury and second, they lost credibility in the eyes of the public. Anybody not in line with the laws of the country and not respected by the public should not any more hold any public position, not to speak of constitutional post as those in EC. On the other hand, if the above mentioned "end" is not hypothetical but actual one then, notwithstanding legal and moral standing, they could cling to power. Unfortunately morality and ethics do not seem to prevail in the premises of the EC and hence, to our utter dismay, the result is what it shouldn't have been to cause more troubles in the days to come. Take one or two examples.

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For two weeks or so, despite a clear guideline from the SC supposedly conveyed by lawyers of EC immediately, the CEC sat on the files of updated voter list on the plea of not receiving the court order and thus stole away valuable time to trim the voter list. We fail to understand how so many days were required to pass on an order of the SC to the EC that is at best a 20 minutes drive from the SC. Whereas, the writ petition submitted against the Dhaka seize programme was, reportedly, settled in vacation and in a Justice's house and communicated to the parties through police at an unprecedented level of efficiency.

However, after receipt of the court order, the CEC and his 'comrades' in the EC started a new course of 'conspiracy' with all their ferocity. It is that (a) the updated version of the voter list would draw upon the 'rejected' new voter list and that (b) voters would have to register their names coming to the EC themselves rather than the EC staff moving door-to-door for collecting the names of the new voters. Implementation of (a) would ensure, to a large extent, the inclusion of fake voters and thus provide an edge to the ruling alliance in the next general election. On the other hand, implementation of (b) would possibly compensate the losers (in this case ruling alliance) with the additional intakes from (a). Of course, faced with possible legal problems, EC backed out from (a) but decided to continue with (b). To that extent EC's decision not to go door to door is another question looming large on the legal horizon. After all the EC is established to see that none is left out as a genuine voter and in that case it should knock at every door. It is ironic to observe that a Justice of the SC Appellate Division has stepped into so many injustices and unlawful ventures over the last few years.

From the bizarre activities of the EC -- especially its mentors -- it appears that the CEC and the Commissioners are unnecessarily killing times so that an accurate updated voter list is shelved for distant future and the next general election is not held on time thus creating a constitutional crisis. The EC is engaged in pushing the country to a grave situation that would only be adduced to the appallingly partisan role of the present EC.

For the sake of holding a free, fair and creditworthy general election in 2007, the CEC and his two Commissioners should immediately resign. In case they do not do it -- and possibly they will not as they are the 'means' to the 'end' of the ruling alliance -- the Supreme Judicial Council should be formed to investigate into the wastage of public money by the CEC and the two Commissioners and for placing the country into a serious constitutional crisis. And as we can witness, the public is poised to negate any election engineering and vote rigging in future. This is evident from the growing resistance by the public in the streets. Especially, the cat out of the CEC's bag has clearly demonstrated that people's rights are resting in wrong pockets. The spectre of Magura and February elections are still in memory as is the memory of the fall outs from those election engineering and vote rigging. Therefore, it is the people who need to extend their support to the fight against the devils destined to spoil a free and fair election. Sooner the government asks CEC and the Commissioners to quit; the better it is for the nation. Otherwise, as in the past, the aggrieved public will come out in the street to realise rights through mass revolution.

Abdul Bayes is a Pofessor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University.