The official website of the Election Commission has been acting up since Tuesday, two days after the ruling Awami League requested the EC to stop publishing the affidavits on its website.
It was observed that if any visitor went to the EC website http://www.ecs.gov.bd/Bangla/ to check the Candidate disclosure of the ruling Awami League link it takes more time than it did before.
However while randomly cheking the site around 5pm, it was noticed that the site works normally when checking to see the affidavits of candidates from other parties, especially those who have not participated in earlier elections.
But, later at 8pm, the site was not working normally when checking to see the affidavits of all candidates.
The unusual download time is a purposefully designed by the website’s designers to make visitors feel irked in querying the affidavits of the candidates, visitors assume.
On Sunday, a delegation led by former home minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir asked Rakibuddin whether it was mandatory for the EC to publish the candidates’ affidavits or not.
The AL made moves after the affidavit issue started being discussed by the public.
“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,” an EC source said.
Rakibuddin then said the disclosure of the affidavits had been mandatory as per the Representation of People Order (RPO). Newspapers and television channels in the last couple of days have published reports on the MP candidates from the ruling party leaders, some of who were MPs and ministers.
The reports showed that many of them had amassed sizeable fortunes while in office during the last five years.
Later, the Election Commission said: “On request of the ruling Awami League, the EC will review the related law to stop publishing the affidavits submitted by candidates of the January 5 elections.”
The affidavits include the candidates’ wealth statements and academic information.
The EC started publishing affidavits in the 2008 parliamentary elections.
