CEC's welcome volte-face

His U-turn surprises nobody at all, but we have all the reasons to feel irritated by his insensitivity.

From the very beginning his actions were bereft of rationale and common sense. Take the case of his holding dialogue with the political parties immediately after he had taken over as the CEC, that included most inconsequential parties. Was there any need for continuing the exercise when it became clear that barring BNP no important political party was interested in it?

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Take another of his action that demonstrated blatant impropriety on his part. His dealings with two of his erstwhile colleagues whose views and opinions on the issue of updating the voter list proved to be correct in retrospect, was very impolite to say the least.

Being a man of law perhaps the most unseemly action of the CEC has been his treatment of the verdict of the High Court, and sticking to his guns on the issue reduced his position to the level of absurdity

But so far every position he has adopted he has been unable to hold on to, instead he has retracted and retraced his steps. Will the CEC bother to ponder for a while what the willful neglect on his part to address the issue appropriately has cost the nation? It has cost us in valuable time and resources while helping to vitiate the already volatile political atmosphere further.

All the CEC's experiments have fallen through. But for his consistent resistance we would by now have had an updated voter list with the credibility of the Election Commission intact. It is our opinion that he is left with not even an iota of public confidence. Under these circumstances we feel that there is no other alternative but for him and his two colleague commissioners to make a honourable exit.

Indeed that is the only dignified option left to the gentlemen.