The Election Commission (EC) has reported that it will cost over Tk 15 billion to conduct voting and maintain law and order during the 12th national parliamentary election. To be specific, nearly 60 per cent of the amount will be spent on maintaining the law and order situation.
According to sources, the estimated cost will be finalised next week, while the election is likely to take place at the beginning of 2024.
According to a Prothom Alo report, the Election Commission, in a meeting with its secretariat officials on Wednesday, decided to pay allowances to the presiding officers, assistant presiding officers, and polling officers for two days, instead of one day. The fuel cost will also go up. More than 900,000 public and private officials will be assigned to different duties during the election.
The overall cost, including procurement of electoral equipment and allowances for election officials as well as members of law enforcement agencies, will reach nearly Tk 16 billion. Moreover, the expenses associated with election training are projected to exceed Tk 1 billion.
In comparison, the allocation for the last parliamentary polls in 2018 was Tk 7 billion, which is less than half of the projected cost of the next election.
The entertainment expenses fixed by the EC should not be a matter of concern. Here, the concerning issue is whether the whopping expenses will truly ensure the voting rights of the people, who are supposed to fund the costs; whether there will be a conducive environment for their voting.
A vast majority of the population could not exercise their franchise in the 2018 polls, and the EC has not yet been able to provide assurance that such circumstances will not recur in 2024. Then, why would the people spend Tk 15 billion on such an election?
An overarching question is how much the EC has fulfilled its vital responsibility to level the playing field for all political parties vying for election.
The ruling Awami League is hell-bent on holding the election under the current government, while the main opposition party, BNP, has declared not to join any polls under the current government. Not only the BNP, but also the left-leaning and Islamic parties, to a large extent, have clarified their stance to boycott the election unless there is a non-partisan government in power.
Then, is Bangladesh heading towards yet another one-sided election?
In the 2014 election, there was no voting in 154 constituencies, and the candidates won uncontested, while in 2018, the Election Commission, led by KM Nurul Huda, could not ensure the voting rights of the people, despite the participation of all parties.
A repetition of the 2014 scenario has become a distinct possibility if the opposition boycotts the upcoming parliamentary polls.
It is truly lamentable that the political parties here could not reach a consensus on the election-time government even after five decades of independence. What they once viewed as a fundamental necessity during their tenure in the opposition, they cast it aside after assuming state power narrowly to safeguard their particular party's interests.
This contradiction must be resolved.
At the same time, the Election Commission's attempt to evade its responsibility by classifying the election-time government as a political issue is acceptable under no circumstances.
At the very least, the commission can play a pivotal role by pushing the political parties to reach a consensus.
If not, why should the citizens bear the burden of Tk 15 billion for an election that is ostensibly one-sided and the culmination of a set of formalities.