The CEC’s pre-poll slumber and the question of ballot stuffing

Can anyone remember such degradation of a constitutional body like what our Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda has done? His defence of the indefensible failure in fulfilling his constitutional duties was not only filled with untruths and misrepresentation of facts, but was also, to some extent, distasteful. His attempt to discredit and humiliate fellow commissioner Mahbub Talukdar by describing him as "a person infected with disease" is quite shocking (Business Insider, January 27, 2022). Someone's medical expenses cannot be an issue of contention, unless there is specific proof of fraud. Besides, simple decency requires seeking permission from the person concerned before revealing their personal information, including ailment.

The CEC's responses to the main allegation against the Election Commission about ballot-box stuffing the night before the 11th parliamentary elections on December 30, 2018 after four years clearly manifest an attempt to rewrite history. His explanation that he didn't see it, and therefore "cannot say anything conclusive based on the allegations," appeared to be contradicting himself, because it was none other than the CEC who told election officials within 10 weeks of that infamous "polling in the night" that "the EC was planning to use electronic voting machines (EVMs) to make sure that ballot boxes could not be stuffed on the night before an election." His arguments in justifying the introduction of EVMs in upazila elections were based on the fact that he did realise what had happened and how he had failed us all.

When he told the media that "You didn't even see it [ballot stuffing the night before voting]," perhaps he forgot that it was the media—BBC, in particular—that showed the world the footage of stuffed boxes well before the voting began on December 30, 2018. His attempt to apportion blame on political parties for not taking the issue to the court is a childish argument to cover his failure. Seeking legal redress from a court is a retroactive move. But what about the prevention of irregularities and violations, especially when the Representation of the People Order, 1972 clearly empowers the commission to stop vote-casting at any polling station or an entire constituency at any stage of the election if it finds the process compromised?

It has been over four years since that night, so the CEC might have forgotten that while he kept his eyes shut, the rest of the world witnessed the mass disenfranchising of hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis. Perhaps, he needs a little reminder about how the world reacted to such a farcical exercise. His refusal to allow foreign observers to monitor the polling now gives credence to such suspicion that his intention all along was to hide his partisan behaviour and inability to conduct an acceptable election. Can he deny that most of the Western nations condemned the violence and widespread irregularities in the 2018 elections, and called for a transparent investigation into all allegations of impropriety? The European Union termed the electoral campaign and the vote as "tainted." The US, expressing concern about "credible reports of harassment, intimidation, and violence in the pre-election period," noted that "election-day irregularities prevented some people from voting, which undermined faith in the electoral process."

The United Nations and a good number of international organisations also made similar observations, but their calls for independent and transparent investigations into the alleged irregularities were blatantly ignored. The Human Rights Watch and the Transparency International have documented many of these irregularities. A survey by the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) found that stamping of ballots took place on the night before the 2018 election at more than one centre in 33 constituencies out of the 50 surveyed.

The CEC also cast some unwarranted aspersions on the Shamsul Huda Commission when he said, "There is a difference between holding elections under a partisan government and a military-backed government. There will be criticism of any election held under a political environment." Here again, he was wrong as every military force is supposed to support the government of the day. Besides, we had at least four elections that have won recognition at home and abroad. The differences now, however, are the absence of a political consensus and a lack of sincerity and integrity on the part of the commission led by CEC Nurul Huda.

His partisan acts started well before his taking of oath of office on February 15, 2017, when several newspapers published photographs showing him as CEC-designate taking floral wreaths from the local leaders of the ruling Awami League and distributing sweets. That explains why he surrendered his authority during the parliamentary elections to a partisan administration, instead of making them work for him. The harm he has caused to our electoral institution is unlikely to be recovered anytime soon.

Kamal Ahmed is an independent journalist and writes from the UK. His Twitter handle is @ahmedka1