Credible election to defend democracy

The recently ended Upazila election could not win the people's confidence as a free and fair one due to its mismanagement for which public at large blame local administration generally and the Bangladesh Election Commission in particular.

Many independent election monitoring bodies and individuals have termed the Election Commission as an organisation not so strong and effective to gain the confidence of the people. This was more substantiated when one election commissioner made a sarcastic and disgracing remark against a party supreme (former prime minister, three times) openly. This was disliked by people irrespective of party affiliation. The long absence of the CEC during Upazila elections was severely criticised by people in general and independent election monitoring bodies. Public, by and large, has lost confidence on the efficiency and neutrality of the Election Commission.

Unfortunately, Bangladesh Election Commission has till now not been able to show its strength and supremacy due to the fact that the CECs were appointed on party affiliation basis and dictated by political parties as their long hand. Some were very poor in personality having no backbone or no quality to grace the position on merit. Very weak prime ministers and presidents did not work to develop the Commission as independent constitutional organ of the government and they disgraced the Bangladesh Public Service Commission and the Anti-Corruption Commission equally. Some prime ministers like Shah Azizur Rahman, Mashiur Rahman  or Mizanur Rahman Choudhury could not think of the importance of these positions and status of Election Commission in particular.

In India, democracy is now a way of life of their citizens due to the presence of a strong Election Commission managing the people's representation as unique body, totally independent and impartial working as a credible institution gaining the confidence of the people at large.

The strength of the Election Commission could be visible with some examples they set before the electorate to gain their confidence. Very recently, West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee had to bow down to the dictum of Indian Election Commission to ensure the order of transfer of five police superintendents and one district magistrate as desired by the Commission which she declined to comply initially. The Election Commission has expressed its undaunted resolute towards compliance of the order or to postpone the election and take strong measures against the incumbents. The officers of the Republic received instructions from the Election Commission and understood its consequences and left the stations quickly. This is a very recent example of Indian Election Commission's stern step, but not a single example in India's Election Commission's attempt to project them as the supreme command of the administration during election.

Former chief election commissioner of India, S Y Quraishi made an august visit to Dhaka in March, 2014 as a curtain raiser of 16^th National Parliament voting in India. During his visit, he repeatedly made it clear that free and fair election should bear the testimony to uphold democracy in any country. He also requested the political parties to strengthen the Election Commission and uphold its supremacy during election for the sake of democracy and honour of the people's wishes. Quraishi, in a seminar on 24 March, stated that "The election what is free and fair is credible and election what is credible is free and fair." He emphatically stated that the people and the opposition of India trust the Election Commission. For all purposes, this is the capital of the Commission.

Walking down the memory lane, we find, the First Indian Chief Election Commissioner was Sukumar Sen (1950-58) who articulated the design and framework of the Indian Election Commission with its independent character prescribing the model code of conduct. He was strongly supported by prime minister Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru who firmly believed in developing democratic system in India.

The strengths and commands of Election Commission were felt very strongly during the tenure of T N Seshan (1990-1996) and fortunately the trend is continued even now with the firm stand of V S Sampath, the present CEC.

The great democratic country like India has started its 16^th National Parliament Election of the Lok Shava, (House of Commons) from 7^th of April to be ended on May 12 where about 814.5 million voters out of 1270 millions citizens might cast their votes for electing 543 Members of the Parliament. The number of voters in 2009 in India was only 714 millions. One party or alliance must get 272 seats to form the Government. Their Election Commission has already published its Model Code of Conduct for the guidance of political parties and candidates to comply in letter and spirit without any deviation.

In fact, the social resistance of Indian citizens was found to be a safeguard of democratic norms and disciplines. In addition, there would be at least 10 lakhs electronic voting machine to facilitate the voting. The Election Commission also introduced a system of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail System (VVPAT) to address any objection or allegation. This is the way, the Election Commission is trying to gain confidence of the people on the fair and free election of the country which in turn paying as dividend to strengthen the democracy as a way of life of the citizen at large. It is the Election Commission that made the voting and democratic system as credible and most acceptable way of choosing national leadership.

It is unfortunate that we failed to develop our Election Commission as a credible constitutional body to ensure free and fair election which might turn as a threat to democracy to continue. Day by day, elections, local and national, are becoming the domain of musclemen and tyrants to usurp power for looting public money. This should in no way be allowed to continue. This country is not for looters or criminals to dominate.

Senior citizen's forums and conscious people in general must raise their voice to uphold Election Commission as a credible institution and oppose those politicians who like to gain over a weak Commission. Democracy, we have chosen as our way of life, must be allowed to continue ad-infinitum.

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Dhiraj Kumar Nath is a former secretary and adviser to the caretaker government.