Bangladesh News

The Election Commission (EC) has directed the district administration, which is still largely dominated by the immediate past government’s appointees and its selection, to prepare a panel of polling officials to conduct the next parliamentary election at field level.

The directive violates the existing electoral laws, which do not allow to officially start the process before announcing the election schedule and appointing returning officers (RO), who are legally authorised to do the job.

The EC generally appoints the ROs soon after announcing the election schedule and the ROs prepare the panel of presiding officers, assistant presiding officers and polling officers.

But, in line with an EC decision, the EC Secretariat in an emergency written directive asked the deputy commissioners (DCs) on Thursday to prepare the panel of polling officials soon after the announcement of the election schedule.

Immediately after taking charge as the acting chief election commissioner on Thursday, Justice Mahfuzur Rahman said the election schedule will be announced this week.

About five lakh polling officials will be recruited to conduct the next parliamentary elections, sources in the EC Secretariat said.

Defending the decision to give the responsibility of preparing the panel of polling officials to the DCs, senior EC Secretariat officials said usually the DCs are appointed as the ROs and they have initiated the move to save time.

Of the present 64 DCs, 30 were appointed by the immediate past BNP-led alliance government while 16 were appointed this month from a “fit list” prepared by it. The caretaker government appointed 18 DCs from its own fit list.

Besides, of around 480 upazila nirbahi officers who would be given appointment as the assistant returning officers, 100 were appointed by the caretaker government, but the rest have been serving since the time of the BNP government.

The EC Secretariat in its directive asked the DCs to complete the task of preparing the panel of polling officials on emergency basis.

“The preparation of the panel of polling officials must be finalised immediately after the announcement of the election schedule and the detailed information of the officials will have to be sent to the Election Commission Secretariat within three days after the election schedule is announced,” the EC Secretariat directive said.

These polling officials will play a vital role in conducting the election as they will be all in all at the polling stations on the election day.

Talking to The Daily Star last night, a DC said after receiving the EC Secretariat directives on Thursday he has started a process for sending letters to the heads of different government and non-government offices, institutions and establishments in the district, asking them to provide a list of their officers and employees.

“In accordance with the EC Secretariat directives, I will have to prepare the panel of polling officials from the officers and employees of the organisations in my district,” he said.

The district and upazila election officers were asked to assist the DCs in preparing the panel.

Meanwhile, the EC Secretariat has almost finalised the polling stations unofficially with the help of the district administration. About 35,000 polling stations will be used for the next parliamentary election, sources said.

The EC Secretariat is likely to start sending election materials to field levels today.

LAWS ON APPOINTMENT OF POLLING OFFICIALS
The election laws authorise the ROs to prepare the panel of polling officials and appoint them from that panel. However, there is no existence of ROs in the ongoing election preparatory process as of now.

According to the election laws, “The returning officer shall, by a notice in writing, require all heads of offices, institutions and establishment, whether government or non-government, in the district to provide him with a list of their officers and employees of such grades as he may specify for preparation of a panel of Presiding Officer, Assistant Presiding Officers, and Polling Officers from among them.

“The Returning Officer shall appoint from the panel for each polling station a presiding officer, a such number of assistant presiding officers and polling officers to assist the presiding officer as the returning officer may consider necessary.”

In its written directive, the EC Secretariat referred to the election laws regarding preparation of the panel by the ROs, but it directed the DCs to do the job.

A senior official at the EC Secretariat said, “It is true that the election laws authorise the returning officers to prepare the panel of polling officials. But if we wait until the appointment of returning officers following the announcement of election schedule, it will be very late.

“We know that the deputy commissioners will be appointed as the returning officers,” he said, adding, “We followed the same procedure in preparing the panel of polling officials for the last parliamentary election.”