Former Election Commission officials have suggested and expressed their views regarding free and fair elections ahead of the next parliamentary polls where the present commission wants to ensure participatory and hassle-free elections.
All previous Election Commissions could not complete its work properly ignoring the influence of money and muscle power in the entire electoral process, they said.
We still suggest that the present commission should try like all the previous commissions did, said former Election Commission officials after a meeting with the present commission at Nirbachan Bhaban in Dhaka’s Agargaon on Wednesday.
At the meeting, they emphasized that in order to have a fair election, apart from the election day, proper monitoring and measures should be taken from the start of the election process to post-election.
Representatives of the previous EC added that the country’s system cannot be compared to the western democratic electoral system.
However, healthy elections are possible if the election officials can properly implement the duties assigned to them, they also suggested.
Former Election Commissioner M Sakhawat Hossain suggested increasing the use of CCTV instead of using Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in elections.
Mentioning the controversy over using EVMs, he said that it was possible to find out irregulates using ballot paper instead of EVMs.
Former Election Commissioner Md Rafiqul Islam, said: “No commission has been able to function fully by ignoring muscle and money power. But we have to tirelessly continue making effort.”
However, many of the former commissioners wanted to know about the legal relevance of cancelling the Gaibandha-5 by-polls and suggested to find out who was responsible for the irregularities and ensure punishment according to existing law.