Editorial
Election Commission should
get its priorities right
The Election Commission on Monday formally informed the military-controlled interim government of its plan to hold elections to four city corporations and eight municipalities in April and requested it to create an atmosphere conducive for electioneering in the run-up to the polls. The reason that the commission cited for its plan to hold the city corporation and municipal polls in April is that these elections are long overdue. It seems to have conveniently forgotten that so are the elections to the ninth Jatiya Sangsad. In fact, when the commission was reconstituted, a year ago, its prime mandate was to hold the general elections, which had been scheduled for January 22, 2007 and were eventually postponed following the declaration of a state of emergency on January 11, 2007 and the subsequent installation of the Fakhruddin Ahmed-led interim administration. Increasingly, however, the commission seems to be veering away from its prime mandate of holding the parliamentary polls and getting involved in assignments that may very well be undertaken after the general elections. While it unveiled an electoral roadmap amid much fanfare in July 2007, according to which the general elections will be held by the end of the year, it has thus far struggled to meet the deadlines it has set for itself. The dialogues with political parties over electoral reforms are stalled and, by implication, so are the electoral reforms themselves. Voter registration continues at a pace slower than expected. Overall, the commission’s foot-dragging vis-à-vis the general elections and sudden eagerness to hold local government elections could very well reinforce a growing suspicion in the public mind that it may have become party to a larger political scheme.
Curiously still, initiating the process for local government elections does not fall within the jurisdiction of the commission even. It is the local government ministry that may request the commission to hold the elections to city corporations, municipalities, union parishads and what have you. As far as we know, the ministry has not made any such request so far. True, the commission’s plan for electoral reforms does envisage its empowerment to hold local government polls; however, no such law has been gazetted thus far. In other words, the commission seems to be assuming authority that is still not vested in it.
Moreover, the commissioners are not speaking with the same voice. Prior to the meeting with the chief adviser on Monday, the chief election commissioner said the state of emergency was a barrier to creating a congenial atmosphere for holding local government elections, thereby dropping the hint that the commission would ask the government to lift the state of emergency. However, after the meeting, one of the commissioners, a retired army official, said the commission ‘has neither called for lifting nor easing the emergency rules.’ Such contradictory opinions within the commission could only add fuel to public misgivings about its intentions.
Finally, a reminder. While an election commission has a five-year term, history tells us that whenever a commission veered away from its prime objective it failed to serve out its tenure. The incumbent election commissioners should keep this in mind.
Nepal parties should mark monarchy’s
resurgent popularity
Nepal’s monarchy still enjoys popularity despite the recent decision by the mainstream political parties to declare the country a republic, according to a report published in New Age on Tuesday. According to a recent poll, 49.3 per cent of the population want ‘a place for the institution of the monarchy in the future,’ compared to 38 per cent who want to see the monarchy scrapped altogether, it was reported. While the popularity of Nepal’s 239-year-old monarchy has risen and ebbed through the decades, the political parties and the Maoist rebels who have entered the political mainstream through a peace deal should flag the poll-results as a significant revelation on their own popularity.
When deposed King Gyanendra’s dictatorial regime collapsed in April 2006 after months of pro-democracy protests that were brutally silenced time and again by the security forces, there had seemed to be a universal consensus in Nepal that the monarchy as an institution had reached the end of the road. For more than half a century Nepal earned its democracy, its monarchs have misused their constitutional right to dismiss parliament and dissolve government. The latest of these instances coming in 2004, when former King Gyanendra imposed his absolute rule alleging that the politicians had become corrupt and that the Maoist insurgency was gaining ground against an impotent regime in Kathmandu. During Gyanendra’s rule, Nepal’s traditionally free press was reined in and a heavy-handed approach to the insurgency, with the king pitting the Royal Nepal Army against the rebels, resulted in growing numbers of casualties and widespread abuses of human rights on either side. Despite the fact that ordinary Nepalis, in the only Hindu Kingdom in the world, have traditionally believed that the monarchs are incarnations of the Hindu god Vishnu, towards the end of his direct rule, his legitimacy in the eyes of the public had plummeted to the point that Nepalis were willing to see the monarchy scrapped.
Why, then, is the former king and his institution experiencing a resurgence in popularity? Since April 2006, the political parties and the Maoists have been locked in a series of protracted negotiations which has dragged on an uncertain peace process for so long that Nepalis are rejecting them too. Nepal’s elections to a constituent assembly have so far been twice delayed, and the rebels walked out of negotiations last year threatening to boycott the polls now scheduled for April. It is imperative, therefore, that the politicians and the rebels, who are now in the political arena, must recognise these recent poll results as an indictment of the uncertain and fragile peace that they are offering to the Nepali people. The April elections must go through without further snags, and the pace of the process through which a new constitution is drafted must internalise that it is imperative for Nepal to return to stable democratic governance that is primarily concerned with governing the country as early as possible.
Misplaced allegiance, misplaced priorities
A full year has passed since the Election Commission was reconstituted and yet we are not even close to having the general elections to the ninth parliament. That is pitiful and pathetic on the part of the commission, a record that it will not be able to hide by bringing local government elections to the fore, writes Shameran Abed
THE reasons for the Election Commission’s obsession with holding local government polls before conducting the stalled general elections to the ninth parliament remain shrouded in mystery. Having dropped hints in recent months of its intention to conduct elections to the union parishads and ward commissions before the parliamentary elections which this regime has promised to hold by the end of 2008, the commission on Monday formally informed the military-controlled interim government of its plan to hold elections to four city corporations and eight municipalities in April. The commission also urged the government to create an atmosphere congenial for electioneering ahead of the polls.
The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, stated prior to a meeting with the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on Monday that the state of emergency was a barrier to campaigning and electioneering and suggested that the elections cannot be held unless emergency was lifted. However, after the meeting, another election commissioner and a retired brigadier general, M Sakhawat Hussain, said the commission had asked the government neither for the lifting nor the easing of the state of emergency. According to him, the commission merely wants the government to create an atmosphere conducive to the holding of city corporation elections and that it is up to the government to decide how it wishes to do so. How an election commissioner can even envisage that meaningful elections can be held while a state of emergency that suspends the people’s political rights is in effect is anyone’s guess.
Before considering the possible reasons for the commission wanting to conduct local government elections in general and city corporation elections in particular prior to the holding of the stalled parliamentary elections, it is worth pointing out that there are several things amiss in the way that the commission is going about fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities. According to Article 119 our country’s constitution, the Election Commission has four primary responsibilities: ‘a) hold elections to the office of President; b) hold elections of members of Parliament; c) delimit constituencies for the purpose of elections to Parliament; and d) prepare electoral rolls for the purpose of elections to the office of President and to Parliament.’ Also, Article 23 (3) of the constitution mandates that a ‘general election of members of Parliaments shall be held within ninety days after Parliament is dissolved, whether by reason of the expiration of its term or otherwise than by reason of such expiration.’ The eighth parliament was dissolved in late October of 2006, over fifteen months ago, and the Election Commission was reconstituted in early February of 2007, almost exactly one year ago. In that time, not only has the commission failed to fulfil its constitutional duty to hold parliamentary elections, it is becoming increasingly certain that the commission it is not even bothered about the holding of parliamentary elections and is busy preparing for local government elections instead.
Yet, the holding local government elections are not a responsibility of the Election Commission as far as our constitution is concerned, even though the commission always plays the critical role in the holding of local government elections at the request of the local government ministry.
However, in the current scenario, it is the Election Commission that is taking the lead in holding local government elections, in particular the city corporation elections that it has planned for April, without any apparent urgency on the part of the local government ministry or any official request from the ministry to the commission to conduct the elections on its behalf. This is unusual to say the least. Also, the commission’s justification for the holding of local government elections at this time is simply that the elections are overdue. While that is undoubtedly true, why is the commission more concerned about the fact that local government elections are overdue, but not that the far more important general elections are also long overdue and that every day of delay in holding the parliamentary elections constitutes a violation of the country’s constitution on the part of the commission?
What this reconstituted Election Commission ought to have done was to prepare for general elections as expeditiously as possible and set a date for elections independent of the perceived political agenda of our so-called non-political interim government. Instead, it seemingly decided to become an extension of the current regime and bought into its agenda, putting forward a ‘roadmap’ more than five months into its tenure that envisaged parliamentary elections before the end of 2008, thereby giving the regime enough time to carry out its political engineering. In that, this commission is very similar to the one that preceded it, which was an extension of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance government. Trying to justify holding off elections till the end of this year would require, even on the part of a commission that is incredibly tardy, an immense amount of foot-dragging. That is currently what this commission is doing, prioritising everything above that which is its primary constitutional duty: holding elections to parliament!
However, foot-dragging may not be the only reason why the Election Commission is so intent upon holding local government elections before parliamentary elections. Given that the current regime has tried, unsuccessfully so far, to implement its ‘minus-two’ scheme of liquidating the political careers of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, it is not inconceivable that the commission is aiding and abetting the plans of the ruling coterie to create a political base at the grassroots in order to challenge the political hold of the two matriarchs of our politics. The last time a military dictator was in power in our country, he did just that – holding local government elections to place his people at the grassroots only to build a platform for him to float a political party of his own. Although HM Ershad was able to prolong his stay in power thus, through the civilianisation of his government thanks to the Jatiya Party, the present regime should learn a lesson or two from the current position of that party in our national politics if it does have any intentions whatsoever of replicating that model to extend its hold on power.
If not, there is no plausible reason for this government or the Election Commission to want to waste its time on local government elections when the country has not had a parliament in over fifteen months. There has been no public demand for local government elections, at city corporations or the union parishads. The local government ministry has not expressed any desire or shown any urgency in having local government elections conducted prior to parliamentary elections. And also, the effectiveness of local governments at a time when parliament is absent and the country is being ruled by a military-controlled regime without any effective opposition is likely to be nominal anyway.
Hence, the Election Commission should gear its activities towards getting the electoral train back on track. A full year has passed since the commission was reconstituted and yet we are not even close to having the general elections to the ninth parliament. That is pitiful and pathetic on the part of the commission, a record that they will not be able to hide by bringing local government elections to the fore, whether for the simple reason of foot-dragging or for reasons more sinister.
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