As the Election Commission weighs its options on Awami League’s request to stop publishing the affidavits of candidates of the 10th parliamentary elections, its website, too, appears not to be allowing visitors to download the affidavits.
However, the website appears to be working properly for the links to the affidavits of candidates of other parties.
EC sources said the commission had held several meetings yesterday to stop publishing candidates’ wealth statements on its website.
They said the commission had started examining the court directive on publication of personal information of candidates and also asked its law wing to examine the laws regarding the Awami League’s request and report within two days.
“The chief election commissioner and the election commissioners have been discussing this for the past two days. It is not possible to stop publishing the information suddenly. But the commission may discuss doing it by amending relevant laws,” a senior EC official yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune.
“The commission will review the law following the request made by the Awami League,” Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad told reporters on Monday.
Meanwhile, visitors of the EC website (http://www.ecs.gov.bd/Bangla/) complained that the pages were taking too long to load although the pdf files containing the affidavits of candidates from other parties were loading normally.
When asked about the problem, EC System Manager Rafiqul Hoque told the Dhaka Tribune that the website was working slowly as there had been an upsurge of traffic.
“We are concerned about the matter and we are investigating it. We will meet today to discuss the matter. I hope that the problem will be solved soon,” he said.
Asked if there was any pressure from the commission to stop showing specific affidavit files on the website, EC Systems Analyst Farzana Akhter said there was no such pressure.
ABM Riazul Kabir Kauser, member of a subcommittee of the Awami League election steering committee, yesterday met with senior officials of the EC’s law wing. He told reporters that there was no reason to stop publishing the affidavits.
According to article 12 (3b) of the RPO stipulates that every nomination paper shall be delivered along with an affidavit signed by the candidate containing eight types of information, including educational status and wealth statement.
On Sunday, a delegation led by former home minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir asked Rakibuddin if it was mandatory for the EC to publish the candidates’ affidavits.
The Awami League made the move after the media began discussing the wealth statements in those affidavits, especially those of ministers and ruling party MPs.
“Alamgir mentioned that several reports had been published in the media on the affidavits in the last few days. He said if it was not mandatory, the commission should stop publishing the affidavits,” sources said.
The EC yesterday issued a statement signed by Director of Public Relations SM Asaduzzaman, saying the published report on stopping candidates’ affidavits in the media was incorrect.
“The commission is obligated to publish the affidavits as per the laws. The returning officer and the commission are publishing the candidates’ affidavit information. The practice of publishing affidavits started from the ninth parliamentary elections in 2008,” the statement read.
“Anyone can see the affidavits on the commission’s website. The commission did not backtrack from publishing the affidavits and is not looking for any loophole in the law to do so,” it said.