CEC blames bureaucracy for delay

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Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda yesterday blamed the bureaucracy for the delay in making the Election Commission’s (EC) Secretariat independent of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

“You know about bureaucracy. We send proposals [on the EC Secretariat's independence] to the government. But their secretaries—the principal secretary and law secretary–change our proposals in such a way that we have to depend on them again,” he said during the electoral reform talks with the Workers Party of Bangladesh.

“They send the proposals back to us after making changes that we do not agree with. We send our reply with amendments to the changed proposals and the exchange of letters keeps going,” said the poll chief.

He, however, hoped that their latest proposals would be implemented to separate the EC Secretariat from the PMO, now the office of the chief adviser.

The demand for separation always figured prominently in proposals placed at different times by former election commissioners, civil society groups and political parties.

In the past, the commission had faced difficulties in conducting polls because of interference from the executive. Oftentimes, the secretary to the EC seemed to be working against the commission. Only those who would serve the ruling party or alliance’s interest best were appointed to the post.

With a view to break free of the PMO grip, the current EC came up with a number of proposals on June 7. According to those, the caretaker government should place the EC Secretariat under the commission’s control with a budget as per its requirement. Besides, the EC would be responsible for appointments of the secretary and other staff.

The council of advisers to the caretaker government approved the EC’s proposals in principle on June 23 and asked the law ministry to draft an ordinance for setting up an independent secretariat for the commission.

Sources at the EC Secretariat said the law ministry had drafted an ordinance titled EC Secretariat Rules 2007 placing the secretariat under the law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry after separation from the PMO.

Opposing the draft, the EC said its secretariat will be considered as a division according to the Rules of Business and it will be attached to the law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry.

In response to the Workers Party’s proposals for an independent EC Secretariat, the CEC yesterday said the EC wants its secretariat to be connected with the law ministry so it is not in a vacuum.

He also stressed the need for formulating laws on appointment of the commissioners. He told the Workers Party delegation about their initiative for enacting a law on the constitution of the commission.

WORKERS PARTY PROPOSALS
During yesterday’s dialogue, the Workers Party placed a set of proposals for the EC. Like most other political parties, it too wants the war criminals and anti-liberation forces to be disqualified from national elections.

It said it would not sit with Jamaat-e-Islami at the EC’s planned conference on electoral reforms next month and urged the commission to hold talks with the Jamaat leaders separately.

The 10-member delegation led by party President Rashed Khan Menon however supported most of the EC’s proposals for electoral reforms.

They proposed involving the political parties in the voter registration process, leaving Rohingyas and stranded Pakistanis out of the voter roll, and calling off the ‘time-consuming’ preparation of national ID cards to expedite the voter listing job.

The party strongly opposed the EC’s plan for holding the local government elections before the parliamentary polls.

“Holding the parliamentary election is the main constitutional duties of the caretaker government and the commission. The government cannot request the commission to have elections to the local government bodies first,” Menon argued.

“It will not be wise to follow the footstep of the previous military rulers who held the local government polls to strengthen their political base,” he observed.

The CEC and the two other election commissioners–Muhammed Sohul Hussain and Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain–however did not say anything in this regard.

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