Acknowledging the Election Commission’s inability to stop violence during polls, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal has urged political parties to take on some responsibility.
He was speaking to leaders of the Nationalist Democratic Movement (NDM) at Nirbachan Bhaban in Dhaka on Sunday.
“You must have a concerted effort. If someone stands with a sword, you should stand with a rifle or another sword. If you run, what do I do? We will help. We’ll have command over the police and the government,” Awal said.
“We cannot stop violence. You (political parties) have to take on some responsibility, because you are the players… we are the referees. We have enough power, which we will put to use,” he added.
The chief election commissioner also asked everyone not to blame the current commission for the 2014 and 2018 general elections. “We will take responsibility for our elections,” he said.
The commission would leave no stone unturned to make polls participatory and fair, he said, adding: “We will fail in our endeavour if all parties do not cooperate.”
“We cannot force any party to participate in the election, but we will repeatedly call on all parties to do so.”
Awal said the commission would seek the government's help, and that the outcome of the election would be dire if it did not help.
Describing Bangladesh as a “multiparty democratic republic”, Awal said there was no constitutional bar to a single party winning all 300 seats and forming a government, but democracy would die and autocracy would rear its head if that were to happen.
The commissioners were ready to step down in any situation, Awal said. “If I have to step down for the sake of the election, no one has to request me to do so, I will do it on my own accord. We did not assume this office to have fun, we did so to work hard and carry out our difficult responsibilities.”
Later at separate talks with Bangladesh Congress, Habibul changed his stance asking the political parties not to engage in electoral fights with swords and riffles.
Describing the election as one kind of fighting, he said none should fight with weapons here. “Actually, you will have to fight with public support. Don't fight with swords-rifles.....fight for the ballots. You’ll have to fight the battle for ballots,” he went on.
About the election-time government, Habibul in the talks with NDM said, “The one that will be there during the election is the government. I have repeatedly said that the political party and the government are not the same.... We will seek help from the government. If the government does not help, then there could be dire consequences of the election.”
He said the participation of political parties, particularly major parties in the election is very essential. “I can’t force any party to participate in the election. But we will continue asking all parties repeatedly to participate effectively. We will continue that effort,'' he added.
He said the public opinion would not be reflected accurately unless there is no competition in the election.
The CEC said if only a political party forms the government winning 300 constituencies, there is no constitutional barrier here. But history says, in that case, democracy will die soon, he went on.
About the Electronic Voting Machines, the CEC said the EC went for open talks with political parties and experts following arrangement of five to seven workshops on EVMs. “No one could show any flaw,” he continued.
Noting that the propaganda over the EVMs continues, he said there is confusion and doubt about EVMs. “We are really worried.... It is our hope that the national leaders will resolve the contentious issues through intensive discussions with a positive attitude and create a favorable environment and level playing field in the upcoming general election,” he added.
The NDM team led by its chairman Bobby Hajjaj placed an eight-point proposal in the meeting. The proposals include staggering the holding the national elections, bringing the full control of public administration under the EC during the election, incorporating audit paper trail (Voter-verified paper audit trail-VVPAT) in EVMs, stopping the wholesale arrest in political cases after announcement of election schedules and controlling the ceiling of election expenditures strongly.
The delegation of Bangladesh Congress, led by its chairman Advocate Kazi Rezaul Hossain, raised a number of proposals in the dialogue with the EC. The proposals include running three ministries –-home, public administration and defence-– by the CEC during the election and announcement of schedule three months before election.
Other proposals include introduction of printed tokens with electoral symbols in the EVMs and allocating 0.02% of the national budget for registered political parties and distributing the money equally among the parties to run the parties and spend these for social welfare.
In a separate meeting, a team of Bangladesh Nationalist Front-BNF, led by its president SM Abul Kalam Azad expressed uncertainty over a credible and participatory election in the existing political culture.
In this context, BNF asked the Election Commission to play a bold role as a constitutional body.
The party, in a written statement, said the social unrest, political instability, absence of a strong opposition political party in the parliament is pushing the parliamentary democratic system towards uncertainty in the country. “In this situation, an acceptable and participatory election in a peaceful manner is uncertain.”
The EC invited four parties out of 39 registered political parties to join its dialogues separately on Sunday. But three parties participated in the talks. Bangladesh Muslim League-BML didn’t join the scheduled talks.
