The Election Commission (EC) is not performing its responsibilities constitutionally, Jatiya Oikyafront’s leader Dr Kamal Hossain alleged today.

“EC is doing nothing to stop attacks on the opposition activists,” he said at a press conference at Oikyafront’s Paltan office in Dhaka this afternoon.

Criticising the commission’s role, he said: “The opposition candidates are being attacked everywhere, but there is no investigation by the EC”.

There is no legal action taken yet by the commission against the attackers, he alleged; adding that he finds slack in initiatives taken by the body.

Expressing concern over the matter, he said: “I have doubt over the EC whether it will be able to hold a fair and credible election if such situation is going on”.

He called on the party activists to stay alert so that the voters can go to the polling stations safely and cast their votes.

WHAT ARE THE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST GOVERNMENT?

BNP and JatiyaOikyafront have been blaming the government for carrying out mass arrest and harassment of their contenders, leaders and activists deliberately across the country ahead of the December 30 general election.

After announcement of the election schedule, BNP has been lodging complaints with the Election Commission (EC) seeking its step to stop the ongoing arrests and harassment for creating a level-playing field to hold the 11th parliamentary election in a credible manner.

WHO ARE THE TOP LEADERS WHO HAVE COME UNDER ATTACK?

On December 14, JatiyaOikyafront key leader Dr Kamal Hossain’s motorcade came under attack near Martyred Intellectuals Memorial at Mirpur while he was returning after paying tribute, leaving at least 25 to 30 people injured.

On December 11, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam’s motorcade also came under attack, allegedly by AL men, in Thakurgaon’sDanarhat village during his election campaign.

At least 10 people were hurt and four vehicles were also vandalised in the attack, according to BNP.

On December 15, BNP leader Mirza Abbas reportedly came under attack when he was electioneering near Shegunbagicha area of Dhaka. Seven to eight BNP activists were wounded in the attack.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday restored an appeal that challenged a High Court verdict scrapping the Jamaat-e-Islami's registration with the Election Commission as a political party.

The apex court will now fix a date for holding a complete hearing of the appeal on merit, said Mohammad Shishir Manir, a lawyer for the Jamaat.

"If the Appellate Division allows the appeal after holding a hearing on it, Jamaat-e-Islami will get back its registration and will participate in elections," he told The Daily Star.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, passed the order yesterday after holding hearing on a petition filed by Jamaat, seeking restoration of its appeal.

The other three judges of the bench are Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam, Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury, and Justice Md Rezaul Haque.

The apex court bench also condoned 286 day's delay in filing Jamaat's restoration petition after this court had dismissed its appeal against the HC verdict.

On September 1 this year, lawyer Shishir Manir submitted the restoration petition to the apex court on behalf of Jamaat Secretary General Miah Golam Parwar seeking necessary directives.

On that day, the lawyer told The Daily Star that the Appellate Division earlier dismissed the Jamaat's appeal without holding a complete hearing.

On November 19 last year, a five-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by the then chief justice Obaidul Hassan, dismissed the Jamaat's appeal for "default" as its counsels did not appear before the court on that day.

Yesterday, Jamaat's lawyer Barrister Ehsan Abdullah Siddiq told the SC bench that senior counsel AJ Mohammad Ali, now dead, for the party in this case could not attend the court for placing arguments due to political programmes, including countrywide strikes, and his illness.

Maulana Syed Rezaul Haque Chandpuri, secretary general of the Bangladesh Tariqat Federation, along with 24 others, filed a writ petition with the HC on January 25, 2009, seeking its order declaring the Jamaat's registration illegal.

The petitioners said that the Jamaat is a religion-based political party, and it does not believe in the independence and sovereignty of Bangladesh.

Following the writ petition, the HC on August 1, 2013, declared the Jamaat's registration with the EC illegal.

The EC scrapped the Jamaat's registration in October 2018, making it clear that the party will not be able to contest the upcoming national election.

In the verdict, two judges of the three-member HC bench declared the registration illegal. However, the other judge disagreed with the decision made by his two colleagues.

The Jamaat then filed the appeal with the apex court challenging the HC verdict.

Attorney Ehsan Abdullah placed arguments on behalf of the petitioner, while a number of pro-Jamaat lawyers, including its leader Md Jashim Uddin Sarker and Shishir Manir, were present at the court during yesterday's hearing.

The BNP high command has directed the party candidates of Sunday's polls to collect centre-wise results and information on “election anomalies” by today.

The party will compile all the data and submit them to the Election Commission soon, its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told The Daily Star yesterday.

On Monday night, the Jatiya Oikyafront leaders decided to submit a memorandum to the EC on December 3 compiling information on all “polls irregularities”.

Fakhrul will hold a meeting with the candidates at the BNP chairperson's Gulshan office tomorrow morning, said Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, senior joint secretary general of the party.

A letter was sent to each of the candidates yesterday asking them to provide eight types of information, including on election anomalies, arrests and killings of BNP men, to the party, he said.

The ruling Awami League secured a landslide victory in Sunday's polls. The Oikyafront, led by the BNP and several other parties, rejected the result and demand a reelection.

Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda ruled out the demand saying there was no scope for holding any fresh election.

The BNP high command would prepare a summary report and brief foreign diplomats stationed in Dhaka following the compilation of data on the centre-wise results and alleged polls anomalies, said a party source.

The high command was observing the overall situation and the reaction of the international community over the election.

Asked about the party's next course of action, a senior leader said they would not do anything hurriedly. 

“We will take some time as the party leaders and activists are devastated by government repression. We will certainly devise our next course of action once we turn around,” BNP Standing Committee member Moudud Ahmed said.

The BNP high-ups have already decided that MPs elected from the party would not take oath as they have rejected the results alleging various polls irregularities, including ballot-stuffing and driving away of their polling agents.

A senior leader from the Oikyafront wishing anonymity said the main challenge for the BNP was to keep the unity within the combine and the 20-party alliance intact.

The Oikyafront nominated candidates in 299 constituencies, only seven of them won.

Most national elections, wherever they are held, occupy that country's attention for a maximum of a few months – in some cases, even a few weeks. But for us, it is a multi-year obsession. We started talking about our national election from last year. Now it occupies the centre stage of talks even with some of our most important international partners, namely the United States and European Union; the latter's pre-election assessment mission is already in town, whose findings will significantly impact Western views on the upcoming polls.

With so much attention, one would think that our election must be among the best in the world. Sadly, it is among the most questioned. Even Erdogan's election, who ruled Turkiye as prime minister and president with an iron hand for over 20 years, was not subjected to such scrutiny as ours is and will be. Even the run-off went smoothly with razor-thin margins the first time around. The opposition never accused the all-powerful president of rigging. The reason is simple: everybody – be it the ruling or the opposition party – trusts the process. Our case is the exact opposite.

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Govt decision to curtail EC’s power

Even though there are endless talks about the election, there is hardly ever any sensible discussion on it. What we have is regular public utterances of the major political parties, which are mostly acrimonious, defamatory and setting preconditions, but never aimed at narrowing the distance among them. Even after 52 years of independence and 32 years of restoration of democracy – and after all the talks, experiments, debates, international negotiations (there was also an attempt by former US President Jimmy Carter some years back), efforts by the Commonwealth and UN – we still don't have an agreed formula on how to hold a free and fair election.

At the moment, a section of the international community, led by the US, is pressing us to hold a free and fair election. The ruling party interprets this simple and natural demand as a hidden attempt to remove them from power. The opposition hopes that it is a formula that will place them in power. Nobody wants to know, or even asks, what the citizens want.

As taxpayers and law-abiding citizens, we want our freedoms, rights, and good governance. They can only be realised if democracy exists. Democracy, simplistically put, can only flourish if genuine representatives of the people are elected, and that can only happen if elections are free, fair and without violence and money play. We come full circle and end with the focus on free and fair elections.

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‘Nothing will change, everything will be managed’

Journalistically put, our development curve has been moving upwards while our democracy curve has followed an opposite trajectory. The reality today is that our advancement in the economic field is being overshadowed by our setbacks in freedoms, rights, and institutions of accountability. This fact, our government and its leadership do not seem to fully understand. The question it should be asking itself is that after so much development, especially in infrastructure and energy, why widespread dissatisfaction should still exist. The denial of this fact is what has isolated the ruling party from the masses, leading it to suspect that a demand for free and fair elections is aimed at a change of guard at the highest level. With such a record of economic success, it is the Awami League who should confidently move towards an acceptable election and not make questionable laws that further fuel suspicion as to their intentions.

The government move that really launched the downward trend in our democracy, especially the nature and quality of our representative government, is the abolition by the parliament, on June 30, 2011, of the caretaker government system for holding elections. It was done on the basis of a "short order" of a few lines by the Appellate Division, presided over by the then Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque, delivered on May 10, 2011. Interestingly, the short order also suggested that the system be allowed to continue for one or two more terms. However, the government, without considering that option and without waiting for the full text of the verdict, threw out the caretaker government provision from our constitution. One may recall that it was done by the same party that instituted it after years of mass agitation, economy-crippling hartals, and resignation from parliament following endless walkouts. The way the two subsequent elections – in 2014 and 2018 – were conducted clearly revealed why the ruling party abolished the caretaker government system.

If an election is ultimately the expression of the "public will," measures must be taken so that it can be expressed without fear, especially of repercussions. The institution that is at the centre of the whole process, the EC, must be given full authority and freedom to act, as specified by the constitution. Curtailing its power, that also in the name of democracy, and with the 2014 and 2018 elections still fresh in our memory, really does not cut much ice. A repressive legal structure cannot be expected to deliver a free public will. There have been several promises of amending laws such as the Digital Security Act (DSA) and others, and also restraining law enforcement members from inappropriately using their powers. There is no evidence of that happening yet.

As the world is now looking at us to see how we are preparing for the upcoming national polls, our government has just passed a law that clearly reduces the Election Commission's independence in conducting elections. The amendment bars the EC from cancelling election results and allows it to withhold polling only at specific centres where irregularities occur. The law minister said the EC shouldn't have such powers, it is anti-democratic. But shouldn't the EC have the power to make up its own mind? What happens if violence occurs in the majority of the polling centres in a constituency? Shouldn't the EC suspend the election in the entire constituency even then? The amendment has been kept vague on this point. This will ultimately result in restraining the EC. Experience shows that when a law is vague, the authorities usually shy away from stern action, especially if the candidate is from the incumbent side of the political divide.

The other crucial amendment is shortening the time period during which the EC can act. Previously, it was from the date of the announcement of the election schedule till the official publication of the results, which usually covered a period of 40-plus days. Now, the EC's option is to act only on the "polling day." Even if the EC concludes that sufficient ground exists to apprehend that violence may take place on the election day, it still cannot suspend the election till the very day. It could, before the amendment.

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Column by Mahfuz Anam: Free and fair elections for our sake, not because of US visa policy

If we really believe in the EC's independence, why tie its hands in this manner?

If an election is ultimately the expression of the "public will," measures must be taken so that it can be expressed without fear, especially of repercussions. The institution that is at the centre of the whole process, the EC, must be given full authority and freedom to act, as specified by the constitution. Curtailing its power, that also in the name of democracy, and with the 2014 and 2018 elections still fresh in our memory, really does not cut much ice. A repressive legal structure cannot be expected to deliver a free public will. There have been several promises of amending laws such as the Digital Security Act (DSA) and others, and also restraining law enforcement members from inappropriately using their powers. There is no evidence of that happening yet.

If politics is the art of compromise, we seem never to have heard of it. If elections are the mechanism of peaceful transfer of power, we never want to practise it. And if democracy is the system where all political parties have a level playing field, we just don't want to play that game.

Can we solve in the next few months what we have been unable to in the last three decades? If we fail, what prospect does it hold for our future?

Mahfuz Anam is the editor and publisher of The Daily Star.