Law to appoint EC should be enacted first: citizens

Staff Correspondent

Politicians, constitution experts and civic forums have said formation of the next election commission by persons recommended by a search committee constituted through a government circular would not be acceptable.

They called for enactment of a law on appointment of chief election commissioner and other commissioners.

Their comments came after the search committee formed to recommend persons for appointment as election commissioners urged all political parties, which had talks with the president on the issue, to name five persons each by January 29.

The committee at its first meeting on Wednesday urged the parties to send the names with short bio-data to the cabinet secretary who have been assigned to assist the committee, the first of its kind in the history of Bangladesh.

Jurist and constitution expert Shah Deen Malik said a law should have been enacted before formation of the commission. ‘It is not a tough law and many countries have similar laws. It could be enacted hardly in two weeks and the commission could be formed under the law as more than one month and a half is left before the commission is formed,’ he told New Age.

Shah Deen Malik said the Bangladesh Nationalist Party should join the formation process of the election commission as the next general elections would be conducted by it. ‘They will have little chances to demand removal of the commission for constitutional provisions,’ he said.

The Election Commission has already prepared a draft for the law on appointment of chief election commissioner and other commissioners.

Former caretaker government adviser M Hafizuddin Khan said the appointment process of the search committee was not transparent and it was not clear how the committee would act. He also said the BNP should speak about election commission, not only about the caretaker government issue, otherwise things could turn more complicated.   

Syed Abul Maksud laid stress on enactment of the law by parliament. ‘If it is done, parliament would also be vibrant and there would be participation of the lawmakers, speaker, the leader of the house and the opposition leader in the appointment of election commissioners,’ he said.

Nasim Akhtar Hossain, a professor of government and

politics at Jahangairnagar University, said, one should consider first who constituted the search committee. ‘I do not think formation of the committee through a circular is a problem; it is more important to see who would select the election commission and how best their choice would be.’

She said that enacting a law only to appoint the chief election commissioner and other commissioners would not be enough unless the election commission was empowered. ‘It should be empowered up to the grassroots level, otherwise nothing would be fruitful.’

‘I had worked with the commission and people in the commission had told me that their dependence on the government, especially on financial matters, and the influence of bureaucrats was the hindrance to its independence. The entire election process should be separated,’ she said. She referred to the Indian election commission as an example of strong election commission.

Dhaka University political science teacher Shantanu Majumder said the main problem was the ‘crisis of trust’ among the political parties. ‘No committee would be able to do anything if distrust among the political parties remains.’

‘The political parties openly say they want democracy... They should mean it and work for it. It requires give and take...,’ he said.

Acting BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said his party would not recommend any names to the search committee for the election commission as the formation of the search committee through a circular was ‘unconstitutional’.

‘The issue of the caretaker government system should be resolved first and then comes the issue of the election commission,’ he told New Age.

Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon told New Age that the search committee did not ask his party to name people for formation of the next election commission. ‘We are not bound to give a list after going through the report in newspapers,’ he said, ‘It must seek names formally.’

Communist Party of Bangladesh general secretary Mujahidul Islam Selim said it was the responsibility of the search committee to pick people for the next election commission. ‘We are not going to give any names,’ Selim said. ‘The committee must find out the persons who are acceptable to all; they must be non-partisan, honest and competent and not linked to any religion-based political parties.’

Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal general secretary Khalequzzaman said the formation process of the search committee was ‘undemocratic’. ‘We are not going to give any list to the search committee,’ he added.

A discussion organised on Friday by the Citizens for Good Governance observed that the search committee formed to recommend names to the president for reconstitution of the election commission lacked transparency.

Questions would arise if the EC is reconstituted on the basis of the recommendations of the committee and the opposition political parties would not accept it, they added.

BNP leaders Mahbubur Rahman and Inam Ahmed Chowdhury, who attended the discussion, said reconstitution of the election commission could not be the issue right now. They demanded restoration of the caretaker government system first.   

Citizens for Good Governance secretary general Badiul Alam Majumder said enacting a law for appointment of chief election commissioner and election commissioners was a constitutional obligation but no government in the past had done it.

Speakers at the programme also pointed out that the caretaker government system was cancelled in the name of establishing trust in elected people but the search committee was formed with unelected people.

They also alleged that many of the people working in constitutional institutions lacked neutrality for the ‘evil politics’ and for the same reason  the search committee also lacked transparency.

They observed that the proposal from the incumbent election commission was much better than the search committee as it would offer chances to both the ruling and opposition camps to work on it.