Secretaries of the administration have been asked to work “cordially” with the polls-time government and execute the decisions accordingly during the next general elections, which are scheduled to be held by next January, officials at different ministries said.
They have also been asked to ensure the security of the Election Commission and provide it with all kinds of support to hold a peaceful election as per the constitution.
The directive came on Thursday in a meeting of the secretaries at the cabinet division conference room at the secretariat, chaired by Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan.
Twenty of the 54 secretaries attended the 15th meeting of secretaries during the present government’s tenure. They participated in open discussion and talked about various issues, Bhuiyan told the media after the meeting.
“The secretaries assured us that they were ready to provide all kinds of support to the election commission and the polls-time government they might need,” he said.
Bhuiyan said: “The secretaries have also been asked to talk to field-level officials associated with their ministries or divisions. If they had any confusion over assisting the polls-time government or the election commission, the secretaries were directed to discuss the issue and clear the confusions.”
“Excluding the security and law enforcement agencies, around 700,000 officials working under different ministries or divisions will work with the election commission during the election period as the commission does not have adequate officials to conduct the election. They need proper instruction from their line ministry,” he said.
Asked what would be the election-time role of civil servants, the cabinet secretary said: “It is not a matter for the civil servants to see who is in power. Rather, we always work to execute the decisions of the government. We will continue to perform our duties as we did under the polls-time caretaker government. It will not be reflected in our activities.”
Regarding the size of the interim cabinet, he said: “The circle of a cabinet is unique, whether it is 15 in number or 55. If the size of the cabinet is small, the ministers would have to take additional charges. It is a political issue whether the cabinet will consist of one party or all parties. We will have to execute their decisions.”
“Most of the existing ministers will not be in the interim government. It’s not their disgraceful exit. They will leave the cabinet to help the election process as some new ministers will be included in the interim government’s cabinet.
"The prime minister will decide everything through consultation,” he added.
The cabinet secretary said: “The election commission secretary informed us that the number of polling centres would be increased to more than 40,000 from the existing 35,000, considering the population of the country. There are 94 million voters in the country at present. But, it may be increase before the election schedule is announced.”
Regarding the law and order situation during the election, Bhuiyan said: “Tight security measures will be taken to ensure voters’ safety during the poll.”
