As the chief election commissioner, Justice MA Aziz had once compared the Election Commission’s task with that of a “postbox.”
The returning officers send copies of consolidated results to the EC which then publishes those in the official gazette. So, “The Election Commission acts just like a ‘postbox’,” Aziz had argued in April 2006.
If we agree with Aziz’s “postbox” analogy then we can say the present EC led by Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad is a postbox.
The returning officers of the three city polls sent the consolidated results to the EC and it published them in the official gazette.
In so doing, the EC has buried all complaints about ballot stuffing and ousting of polling agents of rival candidates by Awami League men.
So is that all the EC can do, just publish the results sent by returning officers in the official gazette or is there anything it can do if the polls are not held in a free and fair manner?
The truth is the EC has ample powers to ensure a free a fair election. The Constitution provides it with the powers.
Constitution expert and former attorney general Mahmudul Islam in his book “Constitutional Law of Bangladesh” writes “The Constitution does not envisage anything else than free and fair election and any law which stifles the hand of the Election Commission in ensuring free and fair polls will not pass the test of Constitutionality.”
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in Noor Hossain versus Nazrul Islam case observed: “We cannot but reiterate that if there was contemporaneous report of allegations about disturbance, rigging of ballot papers or election not being held justly, honestly and fairly then after being satisfied about the correctness of the report or allegations Election Commission would be justified to cancel the result of the election and direct re-poll.”
The EC’s authority has also been set out in the Local Government (City Corporation) Election Rules 2010.
The rules give the EC ample powers to resist any sort of irregularity in the polls. If it appears to the EC that it will not be possible to hold the polls in a free and fair manner due to use of muscle power, intimidation, capture of polling centres and ballot stuffing, it can suspend voting in any polling station. Even the EC can suspend the entire voting, meaning suspend the entire election.
Moreover, the rules provide the EC with the powers to cancel candidature on grounds of gross electoral anomalies. A candidate personally need not violate any electoral law to be punished. Under this provision the onus is on the candidate for the unlawful activities of his election agents and activists.
But the EC kept its claws sheathed rather than use them to hold free and fair elections in the three city corporations.
Kazi Rakibuddin’s predecessors have however exercised the EC’s powers and set some good precedents.
MA Syed set the first precedent by cancelling an election of a municipality in 2004.
In Daulatkhan municipality of Bhola — chairman and ward commissioners–all of whom belonged to the then ruling BNP, were elected uncontested as they did not allow anyone outside of their party to file nomination to contest the election.
The EC led by Syed did not publish the election results in official gazette. It started a probe into the allegation of exercising muscle power in the polls.
After the investigation it cancelled the election results and held fresh polls there.
Another incident had annoyed the EC led by Syed. At the end of 2001, the then ruling BNP men had foiled a municipality election in Sandwip of Chittagong by preventing voters from casting ballots. Not a single vote was cast. The then ruling BNP men had seen to it as none of them was contesting.
The EC probed the incident and decided to hold the polls by deploying army. The election was not held later following a court stay order.
In 2009, the then EC led by ATM Shamsul Huda had also kept the results of 33 upazila polls withheld over allegations of anomalies.
Kazi Rakibuddin, however, has been operating differently from the very beginning.
Under his leadership the EC has never decided to keep the results of any election withheld to probe allegations of polls anomaly.
Earlier, the EC did not take much time to publish the results of January 5 parliamentary election and upazila parishad polls held in 2014 despite allegations of ballot box stuffing.
The EC has just kept publishing the results in official gazette after the returning officers sent the consolidated results. In so doing, the EC has made itself the “postbox” of Justice Aziz.
Source: The Daily Star
