Enough autonomy for Bangladesh EC: Ex-Indian CEC

Bangladesh’s Election Commission should be “quite capable” of holding credible elections, like that of India, trusted by everyone, a former Indian Chief Election Commissioner has observed.

SY Quraishi said on Sunday that he found Bangladesh’s constitution gave as much autonomy and power to its EC as Indian Commission enjoys.

Indian EC holds world’s largest democratic exercise every five year without anyone raising question about its credibility.

On the contrary, elections have become synonymous with violence in Bangladesh and it was overseen by an interim government until the latest one.

The Jan 5 national elections that main opposition BNP and its allies boycotted were overseen by a multi-party cabinet.

Speaking to a group of journalists on Sunday, Quraishi, however, did not make any comment on any specific Bangladesh’s elections.

He would not also suggest anything to the EC that often face criticism of being biased from the opposition parties or who lost elections.

Quraishi, who retired in June 2012, came to Dhaka ahead of India’s 16th general elections scheduled to be held from Apr 7 to May 12.

He said their “neutrality and vigilance” could ensure that Indian elections were free from use of muscle power.

“It’s (use of muscle power) zero,” he said, “It’s a historic success”.

According to him, Bangladesh’s constitution has given everything to its EC. “The onus is now on the Commission to prove worthy of it and deliver good elections.”

“Constitution and laws are just right and they are all enabling. Nothing disables them from conducting credible elections”.

‘Money-power a major issue’

“Our neutrality is totally non-negotiable,” Quraishi said, “Zero-tolerance in partisanship”.

He said “the EC is never concerned about who is winning or who is losing”.

The former Indian CEC says that they stress on the quality of campaign. “It has to be decent and dignified campaign –no personal attack, no hate speech, no appeal to caste or community.”

They also monitor media and follow social media as it involves candidates spending of money, power of which still remains “a major issue”.

“We have hundreds of things to monitor and we have been able to contain the problem (money power) substantially, but not entirely,” he said.

He said politicians resorted to “new model” of spending.

“But we try and conduct raid to catch them. We have a 24-hour complete mechanism, call centres, the moment we get complain our flying squad will go and catch,” said Quraishi adding about Rs 2 billion had been confiscated from 22 states during elections in the last three years.

In addition, fixing a ceiling of 7 million rupees as an aspirant’s expenditure, the Indian EC also operates a full-fledged wing--headed by an income tax commissioner-- to monitor it during the elections, he said.

According to their guidelines, a candidate has to maintain a separate bank account for campaign expenses.

Banks are also instructed to report the EC whenever any ‘extra’ large transactions take place.

“We also appoint expenditure observers, who maintain shadow accounts...during the official campaign period of 14 days a candidate has to report thrice to the returning officer on their expenditure.

“We do checking, we do raids at hotel. We also have our vigilance at airports”.

He said their historic success was to keep the elections free from muscle power.

“First thing to do, neutralise the machinery, if anybody who is partisan we transfer them,” he said, “even anybody in the same post for the last three years has to go, anybody posted in their home district has to go”.

“If we get complains with document, evidence, we run a quick investigation and on slightest suspicion we even changed the chief secretary, home secretary.”

Indian civil servants do not misbehave during elections, fearing their career might be “jeopardised”, he said.

‘Overseas observer’

In a stark contrast from Bangladesh elections, Indian elections do not depend on foreign observers.

“Indian elections have gone beyond that,” said Quraishi.

The Indian people, media and the political parties trust the EC he said adding: “...therefore the idea of a western observer telling us what to do, how we are doing is an obnoxious idea, we do not like it”.

Each and every details including the candidates’ affidavit of criminal and financial background, is made available on the web, said the former CEC.

Civil society also creates awareness before the polls so that people can choose right candidate, he said.

Appointment of commissioners

Opposition parties in India have no role in appointing election commissioners.

Quaraishi, however, feels otherwise.

“But we suggested it (the EC) will feel even stronger if the Leader of the Opposition also had the stamp,” he said, “after sometime rightly or wrongly question may be raised that you are favouring the (ruling) political party as you are appointed by them”.

According to him, the opposition’s say would “enhance the image, reputation and effectiveness of the commission”.

He, however, appreciated the Bangladeshi system, where a ‘search committee’ was formed to appoint.

“Credibility of this institution (EC) is so important that everyone, all parties should contribute, make it powerful, make it neutral, make it strong, otherwise the moment credibility is in doubt, the law and order issue will arise out of that.”

Quaraishi, however, said none pointed a finger to him during his tenure though he was appointed by the government of the day.

“We have gone beyond the stage; all know the election commission is totally neutral”.

Educating the voters

One of the major roles of the commission is to educate and encourage people especially the youth, said Quaraishi adding that “sitting at home and criticising the government and politicians is not the answer”.

“You can’t love democracy and hate politicians. ‘How can you criticise the government if you are not taking the trouble to vote?’ that’s what is told to the youths and urban voters who are less likely to vote,” he said.

The number of first time voters in India now stands at 97.1 million out of the 814 million.

‘Paid news’

Media remains a strong ally, but ‘paid news’ is the one avenue which the Indian EC struggles with, said the former CEC.

“…from money they write, that’s the concern for us and all political parties across the board use it and they are also victim of it,” he said.

There is a Media Certification and Monitoring Committee of the EC to check these, he said. “It is substantially controlled, but still remains an ongoing battle that we keep fighting.”

‘EVMs’

All of the 930,000 polling stations in 543 constituencies across India use Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

It has ‘revolutionised’ elections management, he said.

The last Awami League-led government tried to introduce EVMs in Bangladesh, but was finally shelved due to opposition parties’ pressure.

“You need not to worry of that at all,” he said on that note, “In every country this is how EVM has begun. In some states in the US use it and many EU countries still don’t use it”.

He said it was challenged in the Indian Supreme Court when they first tried to introduce it in 1982 for a technical reason. The law did not have the provision to use EVMs. Then the court instructed to include it in the law.

India uses EVMs since 1998 said Quaraishi. “It has never been questioned, never challenged”.

“Its 100 percent foolproof,” he added.

EVMs are tested in front of all political parties and mock voting are conducted before finally using them in the elections.

“If we get any complain, we can order re-poll, sometimes we can order re-poll of a re-poll,” the former CEC said.

Quaraishi will conduct an Indian High Commission organised workshop on Monday in Dhaka on how India holds its elections where 11 million officials including 5.5 million security personnel will be involved.

He served as an election commissioner from June 2006 to July 2010 before becoming the CEC.

Prior to his assignment in the EC, he was the secretary for the youth and sports ministry.