Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW Vol. 5 Num 863 Wed. November 01, 2006       Letters to Editor Awami League's blunder? M A Hoque, On e-mail It is generally believed that the AL has made a blunder by rejecting Hasan and at the same time not accepting BNP's reported willingness to reform the Election Commission. It was the EC which was solely working for election rigging by playing foul with the voter list which now contains a sizeable number of fake voters besides omitting a large number of genuine voters. Moreover, the EC headed by its present chief does not command confidence of majority of voters for its controversial role in preparation of the voter list. So when the BNP was amenable to consider AL's demand for reforming the EC, the AL should have grabbed the opportunity, because by reforming the present EC the apprehensions of the AL about its impartiality would have been removed. By accepting Hasan and going for election, the AL had a fair chance of coming back to power cashing on BNP's enormous failures in running the country. Unlike the EC, in no way it is possible for the head of the caretaker government to indulge in election rigging. This is absolutely absurd thinking. Perhaps with the changed circumstances now, reformation of the EC is not going to happen and by indulging in election boycott, street arsons etc., the AL is not going to gain anything as the general public hate this turmoil and thereby the popularity of the party is bound to erode. The AL must realise that even if they boycott the election, there are other sizeable political parties including a large number of dissident members of the AL who will join the election. As such amidst all kinds of turmoil and controversy, election will be held as scheduled and there is absolutely no reason why the caretaker government should not be able to hold this. Therefore in the process the AL will come out as the sole loser.