Portrait of a clumsy man

He doesn't recall that the honourable High Court had earlier asked him to refrain from making an altogether new voter list instead of updating the existing one. On his preferring an appeal against the directive of the High Court he offers no convincing explanation. Nor does he lament that his appeal was rejected. The whole episode has eventually turned out to be very costly, nay, a colossal wastage of public money. The liability devolves upon him alone, both morally and legally. Outwardly, however, he doesn't appear to be worried in the least about such an unproductive investment, which came not from his own pocket but from the public exchequer.

His innovative adventure with an altogether new voter list, despite the High Court's ruling to the contrary, was ultimately aborted due to his miscalculation on the prospects of his appeal. He was almost half way through when he learnt about the rejection of his appeal by the appellate division of the Supreme Court. One might wonder why in the first place he went for a new voter list and in the second, why he had to make an appeal to the highest seat of the judiciary.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

It is just possible and perhaps reasonably justifiable that the people watching such a veritable circus make their guess. Actually, he himself had initiated an intriguing gamble right from the day he assumed the constitutional position. We remember that he had invited the political parties, including the so-called brief case parties, for an absolutely unsolicited dialogue.

The overt purpose was to apprise himself of the public thinking, inter alia, about the existing voter list. Apart from the BNP and Ershad's Jatiya Party no other big party, including Awami League, participated because they smelled something fishy in the process. Eventually, the feedback, if there was really any, was in itself absolutely incoherent and unproductive. On the other hand it was the maiden instance of wastage of time and money on the part of the initiator.

Yet he thought that the result of his first venture was substantially rewarding. And, thus, he decided to go for an altogether new voter list, which he felt would ensure fair election (!). He was stopped from moving ahead at the early stage of such an endeavour by the High Court. But he was undaunted because he too was a Judge of the High Court concurrently with his position in the Election Commission. It was just possible that he made a ready estimation of his colleagues in the High Court bench that gave the ruling. Perhaps there was an element of under-estimation, from his egotistic point of view, that granted him a none too desirable psychological booster to be heedless. Here, a sort of self-infatuation could have played a sort of catalytic role that prompted him to ignore the ruling.

So, he went ahead filing an appeal in the appellate bench of the Supreme Court. Meantime, he kept on dodging the press on grounds of physical indisposition. A veritable drama was enacted with the pretext of illness. He closeted himself in a VIP cabin in the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University at Shahbag. He kept the pressmen away for quite sometime and even a representative body of the European Union was not entertained. He shuffled between his residence and the hospital for a couple of days making the press, and the people at large, all the more speculative.

When finally rejected by the Supreme Court he had to swallow the bitter pile. His anticipation for a favourable rule turned out to be totally anfractuous. He took some time to collect himself for a breather. About a fortnight was again lost in the process of collecting the certified copy of the Supreme Court ruling. This was followed by yet a few more days spent on the examination of the ruling. When he thought that he was clear about the directives given by the appellate division he sat down for implementation. Coincidentally, he was again questioned for misinterpretation. As usual with him so far, he defended his standpoint on updating the voter list in the offices of the election commission across the country. The response was pitiably insignificant.

Opposition political parties apart, even the senior ministers of the present government, including BNP Secretary General and LGRD Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, publicly expressed doubts about such a queer and absurd proposition. Yet the gentleman kept harping on the old tune. He claimed that his own interpretation of the Supreme Court directives was absolutely correct. He even invited his critics to initiate a public dialogue over the issue where he would argue his points 4/5 hours at a stretch. He wanted his audience to be members of the lawyer community who only could understand his lecture. He reminded us that he was himself a "barrister" and was prepared to prove the veracity and bona fides of his own conviction.

For quite sometime he continued with his funny and unwholesome game despite tremendous pressure from all sides, including senior members of the 4-party alliance. Besides, all the political parties in the opposition, the distinguished members of the civil society, former EC Justice Naimuddin Ahmed, ECs Mohammad Ali and Munsef Ali, eminent educationists, teachers and other professionals, called for his immediate resignation along with his two "yes-men" colleagues.

The pressure of ever compounding public opinion vis-à-vis the dubious role of the present election commission, the jocular smile, with a tinge of sarcasm, of the outgoing acting secretary of the institution, the "hush-hush" all around kept on aggravating the situation. It soon transpired that he was no longer able to hold on to his citadel. The tremor appears to have rocked its very weak foundation born of a stubborn mind. It was made known that there has been a realisation in the man at long last that he was mistaken.

It has indeed been a very costly mistake on the part of the present CEC. Upon assuming his responsibility the new secretary of the Election Commission talked to the electronic media in tune with the majority public opinion. He, too, doubted that the updating of the voter list was possible sitting in offices. He spoke in favour of house-to-house enumeration after he had his first meeting with the CEC.

A formal notification in this regard was issued on July 7, 2006. In spite of such notification there persists a controversy as to the amendment made by the Election Commission to the rules of 1982. Accordingly, rule 20(1) of 1982 has been relaxed and a new rule has been included. In this regard the former Election Commissioner Justice Naimuddin Ahmed opined that such amendment was not at all necessary. According to him, the updating of the voter list is to be done in terms of Supreme Court directives and guidelines. Besides, the provisions from clause 6 to 18 of the rules are to be meticulously followed he says. Application of clause 20 will be necessary after the voter list is finally updated, opined Justice Naimuddin Ahmed. Though they are back on the desired track the CEC and the two ECs shall have no reason to feel salvaged.

Awami League led 14 party alliance and others in the civil society have already rejected the proposition to hold election under the present incumbents. The opposition insists that they resign immediately to allow a total reform of the EC and of the caretaker government. We continue till then in absolute uncertainty, back to square one. The architect of such a mockery and pitiable situation is the same person we have been talking about.

Kazi Alauddin Ahmed is a management consultant.