If no ‘level playing field’ exists, how are complaints being filed? asks EC secretary

He advises people to make their complaints to the Electoral Inquiry and Adjudication Committee

Despite some unrest, allegations and counter-allegations of irregularities in different parts of the country in the five days since the start of campaigning for the 13th parliamentary election, Election Commission Secretary Akhtar Ahmed says there is “equal opportunity for all”.

Action has already been taken against violations of the code of conduct, but it has not been “visible”, according to him. He also suggested that any complaints should be brought to the Electoral Inquiry and Adjudication Committee.

Responding to questions from the media at a briefing at the EC headquarters on Monday, Akhtar said: "Of course there is a level playing field. It is because one exists that you can make complaints. Would that be possible if there wasn’t?"

Advising the people to go to the Election Inquiry Committee instead of coming to the EC with complaints, he said: “You should inform the Electoral Inquiry and Adjudication Committee. Inform it and give us a copy. I will follow up on it. But if you tell me to go around and look myself, then it will be an injustice to me.”

HOW LONG WILL VOTE RESULTS BE DELAYED?

The EC secretary said that the commission had briefed diplomats on Sunday about the parliamentary elections and referendum. They were informed about the electoral system and the Feb 12 elections. In attendance were 41 diplomats, including ambassadors and heads of mission, government officials, and representatives of the Chief Advisor’s Office were also there.

As the Election Commission presented information on its progress, the diplomats also had questions on various issues.

Akhtar said, “What they basically wanted to know from us is what we briefed them on – what we are doing traditionally. But their curiosity was mainly about the security arrangements and command structure and how long will it take to declare the results of the vote?

“They were informed specifically about the security arrangements, including the numerical calculations of the police force, Army, Air Force, Navy, the RAB (Rapid Action Battalion ) and Ansar and how many of them will be on duty. This time, the police will have 25,000-30,000 body cameras in the polling stations.”

The parliamentary and referendum votes will be cast at about 43,000 polling stations. Two separate vote counts will be held simultaneously. The results will be announced centrally.

The EC secretary said, “They (diplomats) wanted to know - when will the results of the vote be out? What we have said is that, according to our calculations, the results of the centres will be out on time. Three to three-and-a-half or four hours, depending on the number of votes cast. But in cases where expatriate votes will be counted, the count will take longer.”

Explaining the reason for this, Akhtar said: “There are two ballot papers, one for expatriates and one for the ballot paper used inside the country. It is of a different type. And the ballot paper given to the expatriates is of A4 size, on both sides, in two parts. So, the symbol has to be scanned.”

Though there may be hundreds of centres in a given constituency, there will be one centre for postal ballots for the entire seats. The postal ballots of the entire constituency will be scanned there and then counted. For example, in Feni-3 constituency, more than 16,000 postal ballots will be scanned in one centre, which will also take more time.