Commissioner Mahbub Talukdar alleges ‘whimsical behaviour’ at EC

Election Commissioner Mahbub Talukdar, who has been at odds with his colleagues on several occasions, has now alleged whimsical actions at the commission’s secretariat.

He brought the allegation on Monday after the four commissioners on Sunday handed Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda an “unofficial note” over recruitment in a longstanding power struggle.

“A form of capriciousness has taken over the Election Commission Secretariat, which doesn’t go with the relevant sections of the constitution, Representation of the People Order, Election Commission Secretariat Act and Election Commission Rules of Business,” he told reporters at his office in Dhaka.

The commissioner said he was speaking out “for the sake of transparency and accountability” at the constitutional body.

As many as 85,893 candidates took tests for jobs against 339 vacant posts recently, according to Talukdar.

A Dhaka University faculty was given Tk 40.8 million to prepare the question papers and evaluate the answer sheets, he said.

The CEC approved the fund, but the commission has no account of how many examiners were given how much money, the commissioner claimed.

“Even the members of the recruitment committee are unaware of the issue. The secretariat knows nothing about the exams. The type of question papers used in the tests is also questionable,” he alleged.

“I think the activities of the constitutional body have been called into question due to internal irregularities. In many cases, the secretariat has no responsibilities, but the Election Commission has to bear the responsibilities almost all the time,” Talukdar said.

Fair elections would not be possible if there was a lack of coordination between the commission and the secretariat, he remarked.