EC must ensure election environment at polling centres

Election campaigning officially comes to a close on midnight of 28 December. Then voting begins on 30 December morning. However, an election environment is still non-existent in many places. The political opposition complains that they are being obstructed at every step. In some places even the ruling party processions have been attacked. Despite the clashes between the two sides, the law enforcement agencies are only arresting the opposition leaders and activists.

There have been attacks during past elections too, but not directly on the candidates themselves. But this time the candidates are being assaulted. The Election Commission (EC)’s complacence in this regard is inexcusable.

The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) had said that the situation would improve after the deployment of the armed forces. That has not happened. The situation is so bad that an election commissioner was obliged to state that an election and violence cannot continue together.

After the announcement of the election schedule, the law enforcement and the public administration are supposed to be placed under the EC. They are to function in accordance to the EC’s directives. But in actuality, they do not do so. Many of the officials are blatantly partisan, while the EC looks on in silence. The clashes of the contesting sides and the one-sided action of the law enforcement agencies have pitched the poll environment into further uncertainty.

Along with the people, we are deeply concerned at the situation. We are alarmed. The opposition parties say that the moment their leaders and activists take to campaigning, the police swoop down on them with fictitious cases and arrest them. We still cling on to some hope. Let the EC display some steps to tackle the situation in the few days that are left.

A peaceful environment is a precondition to a free and far election. Voting is the most important time of the election. The EC may not have been able to give the candidates a chance to campaign, but at least they should ensure the safety of the voters. They should make sure that the voters can go freely and safely to cast their votes.

The centres must be strictly monitored to ensure that the officials in charge carry out their duties with in a neutral and unbiased manner. The EC must also ensure that the polling agents of the candidates may also be able to do their duty at the polling centres.

The EC has begun sending the election related materials to the voting centres. We expect the EC to ensure the security of these centres. They must keep in mind that the security of the centres means much more than protecting the election-related materials. It means protecting the voting rights of each and every citizen.

The EC has dropped many election observation groups from the list due to party allegiance. We hope they take similar steps regarding the officials on election duty. Just as any person biased towards a certain party cannot be an election observer, any person with such bias should not be able to be in charge of election duty either.

The commission must also ensure that the polling agents of all parties and candidates are able to remain at the polling centres. In the city corporation elections, the opposition candidates’ polling agents were evicted from the centres and the law enforcement event took them and left them far away during the voting. This must not be repeated.

The EC must act neutrality and their neutrality must be credible to the public. No matter who wins in the election, the election must not be defeated.