5 Jan polls held with those believing in democracy: Rakib
The outgoing chief election commissioner, Kazi Rakibbuddin Ahmad, has ascribed the uncontested election of as much as 153 members of parliament (MPs) to legal compulsion as well as to “political game.”
He was speaking in his last press conference as the CEC at the Election Bhaban on Wednesday, the last day of his five-year stint of CEC. Three out of four election commissioners attended the press conference.
The CEC claimed that his commission held elections in free and fair manner barring some stray incidents of violence.
When his attention was drawn to the uncontested election of 153 MPs, Rakib said the provision of uncontested election is in the electoral law.
“Not only in our laws, even such provision is in the laws of developed countries. The election commission has nothing to do with it. It’s a political game. In politics, if you don’t join the polls, the others will make the score without any opposition.
“Democracy is such a thing where the political parties remain strong. And they maintain their own balance,” noted Rakib.
He said more than 153 MPs were elected unopposed in 1920 when Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi called for an election boycott.
In reference to the city corporation elections in 2013, Rakib said that the top leaders of the political parties which had boycotted the polls met him and thanked them for holding “free, fair and neural elections”.
He also claimed that the political party leaders told him that they criticised the election commission in the media just because of political reason and requested him not to take cognisance of their criticism.
“When the political parties failed to reach a consensus,” Rakib said, “in order to keep constitutional and democratic continuity, no democratic path was there before us other than holding the 10th general elections on 5 January in 2014 with the participation of those political parties which believe in changing the state power through ballots in democratic way.”
He said a “constitutional and chaotic crisis” would have been created had the elections not been held at that time.
He said the Rakib-led commission held over 7,500 elections in its five-year tenure.
His attention was drawn to the critics of the Rakibuddin-led commission who said the country has witnessed a destruction of electoral system during the tenure of this commission and asked who is responsible the destruction: Is it the failure of the commission itself or that of the ruling quarter?
The outgoing CEC parried the question.
“Bangladesh is a country of freedom expression. The media is freer here than that in many developed countries. So, everybody has his/her right to express opinion. We don’t want to comment on this matter,” said Rakib.
The bureaucrat-turned-CEC Rakib claimed that he got no phone calls from anyone and acted neutrally.
Asked whether the Rakib-led commission has any failure in its five-year tenure, Rakib even said, “No.”
This five-strong election commission was appointed during the regime of the previous Sheikh Hasina-led government in 2012.
The tenures of four election commissioners including the CEC expired Wednesday while the rest election commission will say goodbye on 14 February.
This commission, which presided over about 7,000 elections including the 10th general elections on 5 January 2014, has widely been criticised for its inaction when violence, capture of polling stations, ballot stuffing, manipulation and irregularities called the shot in most of the elections to the local government bodies.
Election experts, politicians, political analysts and even their former colleagues have alleged that the country has witnessed a breakdown of election system during their tenures.
The much-talked-about 5 January election which was boycotted by all political parties, except the ruling Awami League and its allies, saw the election of as much as 153 MPs uncontested.
At least 22 people including polling officials were killed on the election day as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led opposition alliance had made a call to resist the lopsided balloting.
About ten people were killed in the staggered elections to the upazila councils in 2014 while elections to different local government bodies like city corporations, municipalities and union councils witnessed widespread irregularities.
President Md Abdul Hamid on 6 February appointed former secretary KM Nurul Huda the next chief election commissioner and also appointed four election commissioners who will take oath on 15 February.