Outgoing CEC preaches how to tackle political miscreants!

He has been criticised as a ‘lame duck’ chief election commissioner (CEC) heading an ineffectual Election Commission (EC) that conducted over a dozen elections mostly marred by violence.

Moinul Hoque Chowdhurybdnews24.com
Published : 29 Dec 2016, 04:05 AM
Updated : 29 Dec 2016, 05:03 AM

But, on Wednesday, about a month before he steps down, Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad boasted on how to conduct fair elections and take ‘miscreants’ out of political equation at the time of elections.

“A miscreant is a miscreant and does not belong to a political party. All the political parties told us to sort them out. We will sort them out,” he said after conducting his last election on Wednesday.

The five-year tenure of the current EC under his leadership expires in February and the process of constituting a new election commission is underway.

Awami League factions in Madaripur engaged in a brawl during Wednesday's District Council polls.

He claimed that except for a few isolated incidents, all the elections including the January 2014 parliament polls were generally fair.

“We have noticed that there are several pockets in different constituencies where much of the trouble originates. We hope everyone is aware of that when they conduct free and fair elections in future,” he added. 

In reply to a question about how the EC should control miscreants, Kazi Rakib said “There are immediate measures like using RAB and BGB. I can show what the immediate measures mean.” 

He also said that miscreants should be controlled with an iron-hand and be treated harshly.

The BNP has boycotted a number of elections terming the EC subservient to the government and no fair election is possible under this Commission.

Nearly a dozen elections were held under this EC including the Jan 5 parliamentary election and the Union Parishad (UP) election in six phases.

The UP elections were marred by violence with more than 100 deaths across the country. Many political commentators observed that such widespread violence could be avoided if the EC had been tough.

The District Council elections in 61 districts could not be called a challenging task for the EC because ordinary voters were not involved. 

Only the elected representatives of the other local government bodies voted to elect one chairman and 20 members of the district council.

However, the EC earned some kudos after Dec 22 Narayanganj City Corporation election, which was a violence-free poll in many years.

Even the opposition BNP could not level any allegations of vote fraud or intimidation.