Why does govt. stop municipal polls?

The government is making far reaching plan to stay in power with or without election. Its leaders are making public statements that the Awami League-led government will return to power in the next election, even though local opinion polls showed a total different outlook indicating that the government is losing footholds in urban society and the rural countryside.

But the reality within the ruling party decision making level is rather different. While they are trying to stop the erosion of confidence of party leaders and workers, specially after the humiliating defeat of Awami League-backed mayoral candidates in all the five city corporation elections, they are likely to face more severe debacles.

The defeatist political moves of the party leaders are indicative at different levels. In the first place, the government has asked the election commission (EC) to stop elections to 10 municipal bodies which are already overdue and the polls schedules of three of them were already announced while schedules for others are in the pipelines.

Reports said the EC has stopped every such move including the cancellation of the declared schedules in the light of the government moves in this regard. Critics say since the government is afraid of going to people to seek election at any level, it has asked the EC to stop such preparations raising the question why the EC as a statutory body is complying to such moves.

Another news story said, the government is working to amend the constitution again to stay in power even six months after the election. Analysts tend to explain the move as a safeguard to the ruling party even if they lose the next election to the opposition. It will give the incumbent government enough time to destroy the victory of the opposition or at least allow it leaders and workers and to safe exit with all wealth and criminal records of the past to evade trial. Very strange things are taking place in the country’s political landscape where rule of law is getting far way and the status of the constitution is ever becoming the object of whimsical changes of Awami League to suit its purpose.

In the emerging situation all public institutions are showing serious fractures of neutrality falling into the hand of the government which is bent upon winning the next election – be it with opposition participation or without it. It has therefore scrapped the caretaker government from the constitution and more amendments are now reportedly in discussion within the ruling party to further make sure the next election will bring victory to the Awami League.

The EC has recently proposed 57 amendments in election rules from 41 clauses of the RPO ( public representation ordinance) to destroy the plane even field to the opposition in the forthcoming election. It includes proposal to empower the incumbent Prime Minister to run the government to hold the next election with 20 advisers. The proposal said the Prime Minister and her advisers or cabinet ministers will be eligible to run for re-election and campaign for themselves and the party candidates.

The party chief will have no limit to campaign expenditure. The EC will not have power to cancel candidatures of erring candidates which it wants to surrender to courts. The new EC proposals have raised the question and irked the opposition why the EC bosses want to surrender powers to hold a free and fair election or they want to be just puppet in the hand of the government.

Former chief election commissioner and other commissioners recently raised the questions along with others creating a smoke of doubts on the credibility of the incumbent commissioners and their ability to give the nation a free and fair election.

In this background the LGRD ministry has asked the Election Commission (EC) not to hold the overdue elections to eight municipalities on the alleged ground of redrawing the boundaries of the municipalities before holding elections. But critics say fears of defeat are holding them back. The EC announced polls schedules on July 31 for three of the eight municipalities including Nawhata of Rajshahi, Dupchachiya of Bogra and Sripur of Gazipur. Elections are scheduled to these municipalities for September 8. In fact, elections are overdue in 10 municipalities, including in the three to hold polls by September 20. But the LGRD ministry at first asked the EC to postpone polls including to Chandpur, Manikganj, Chuadanga, Shariatpur and Phulbaria (Mymensingh) municipalities.

As the ministry did not ask the EC to postpone polls to Nawhata, Dupchachuya and Sripur municipalities, it fixed the election date. But the ministry in a letter to the EC on August 7 and again on August 12 asked the EC to suspend the September 8 elections as well. Polls are also overdue in Sitakunda (Chittagong) and Gopalganj (Sylhet). But the EC has stopped all such initiatives in a circular on Wednesday last following the government move. Former election commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain said the government can’t stop the polls after the schedules were announced. Sujan secretary Badiul Alam Majumder similarly believes that the government should not create any complexity after EC has announced the schedules. He said it raised questions whether the government is now afraid of facing polls after the ruling party’s defeat in the city polls.

One can notice that the government has postponed elections to the two city corporations using the redrawing of boundaries of city wards as a pretext. The country is moving towards tyranny abandoning democratic practice, critics say.

Source: Weekly Holiday