5 Jan polls our dissatisfaction: EC Shah Nawaz

Outgoing election commissioner Shah Nawaz has said the lopsided 5 January 2014 election is the only dissatisfaction and lapse of the Rakibuddin-led commission.

“We’ve organised over 7,000 elections. Most of them were good. Some elections were bad, due to to non-cooperation from the parties, candidates, officials and law enforcement. However, overall the elections were good,” Shah Nawaz told a group of reporters at his office on Tuesday, the last day of his five-year stint as election commissioner.

Although the tenures of the four of his colleagues including the chief election commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad expired on 8 February, Shah Nawaz’s tenure ended Tuesday.

Asked what the biggest challenge which toiled them in five years was, Shah Nawaz said the commission did not find that much challenge in the five-year tenure.

“Yet, we have some dissatisfaction. There is a kind of lapse. We wanted an inclusive general election in 2014, but that hadn’t come about for political reason.”

He said a political party and its alliance partners did not take part in the election.

“But the election commission had no role to play. They boycotted the election for political reasons and that’s why an inclusive general election was not possible. So, there are still some lapses in our accomplishments. We felt bad for that,” said Shah Nawaz.

He claimed that they tried best to organise all elections fairly.

The much-talked-about 5 January 2014 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.

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.