Credit where credit is due

.
.

The job of this election commission has been quite difficult from the very beginning. They had to work under a government that had been in power for 10 years. However, they did have the constitutional mandate to face the challenges. As per the constitution, the election commission has absolute power. If the EC is impartial and fair, no one can restrain them from performing their duties.

However, we have seen them do the opposite at the beginning. They let the Awami League-backed candidates take out processions while taking or submitting nomination forms, but asked the police to stop the BNP men when they started doing the same thing.

The EC's role was further questioned when they did not appoint their officials as returning officers and assistant returning officers. The commission's stance on deployment of army during the election and use of electronic voting machines also raised questions. 

However, there were instances where they acted commendably. The ruling party wanted the EC to stop BNP leader Tarique Rahman from having a say in the opposition party's nomination process, a request the commission did not entertain. It acted independently, free from influence, in this case.
It was necessary to once again display this same spirit during the appeal process of the nomination paper filing. In our country deputy commissioners are usually appointed as per their political orientation. So when they were appointed to scrutinise the nomination papers, there were doubts over how impartially they would act.
The returning officers failed to dispel those doubts. They rejected the nomination papers of around fifty BNP candidates for trivial reasons, leaving some seats with no BNP representation. On the other hand, only a couple of rebel Awami League leaders' candidature was cancelled. It seemed we are set for another election like the one held on 5 January 2014.
After the appeal process, the EC has won back some of the trust. Declaring about 70 BNP candidates' nomination papers valid, they have fulfilled an important condition of the election. True, they failed to act in some special cases, like Khaleda Zia's right to contest the polls and there are debates over the commission's role. But they showed impartiality and prudence during the appeal process of the nomination paper filing.
The EC has ensured that the political parties get their people to contest the polls. Now their duty is to hold a free and fair election. At the very beginning, they have to safeguard the opposition candidates from police atrocities, including false cases and search operations. If the candidates cannot be in the area because of the politically-motivated cases, how can they canvass for their candidature? How will their followers believe that the election is being held in a free and fair manner? How will they find the motivation to go to the polling centre and cast their votes?
If they want, the EC can carry out reshuffling in the police force and the administration, ask for politically motivated cases to be stalled and warn dire consequences for wholesale arrest or police atrocities.
From seizing illegal arms to asking people to surrender legally owned firearms and letting both the parties use the state media, they can ask the government to treat both the parties equally. The returning officers who could not act impartially during filing of nomination papers can be put in check by the EC appointing their own officials or assistant returning officers to those places.
I would like to thank the election commission. Their performance in finalising the nominations somewhat restored confidence in them. They must maintain this trust.
* Asif Nazrul is a professor at the Dhaka University's Department of Law. This piece appearing in the print version of Prothom Alo has been rewritten in English by Quamrul Hassan