Election Reform Commission chief Badiul Alam Majumder said, “There was a lot of pressure from the political parties to form a new election commission.” In such a situation, the interim government has formed a new election commission to give the impression that the election train is running.
Before the Electoral Reforms Commission gave its report in a discussion meeting on Monday, he spoke in response to the question of how he views the formation of the new Electoral Commission as the head of the commission.
Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS) organized this discussion on the role of Election Reform Commission in restoring people's right to vote. The discussion meeting was held at The Westin Hotel in Gulshan, Dhaka.
Badiul Alam Majumdar expressed his hope that the new commission will play an effective role in ensuring voting rights of citizens.
The head of the Election Reform Commission said, 'The entire government, the Election Commission, political parties, civil society and the media have a major role to play in restoring the democratic process by returning the voting rights to the people. If the government, including the bureaucracy and law and order forces, is not completely non-partisan, it becomes difficult even for a strong Election Commission to hold an acceptable election.'
He expressed hope that the bureaucracy and security forces will perform their duties completely neutrally in the next elections.
He felt that the recklessness of political parties and candidates to ensure their victory is also an obstacle in the way of fair elections.
Regarding the money game in the election, the head of the Election Reform Commission said that there is a democratic system in Bangladesh which can be bought with money. As politics has become a business rather than public service, everything from nominations to votes can be bought here. For this reason, reducing the influence of money in elections is the biggest challenge.
Asked what are the priorities of the Electoral Reforms Commission, Badiul Alam said, 'How can the presidential, national parliament and local government elections be held to maintain the balance of power in the state, delimitation of parliamentary constituencies, including electronic voting for citizens who are deprived of voting including women and expatriates. (e-voting) is a priority of the Reforms Commission to work towards creating voting opportunities and ensuring adequate security measures.'
Apart from this, the Reforms Commission will also look into whether the National Identity Card (NID) system can be expanded to create voters' lists from it.
Democratization of political parties, accountability of those involved in electoral crimes, introduction of 'no' vote may also be among the recommendations of the commission.
President Major General (retd) ANM Muniruzzaman moderated the discussion. He said, in a democracy, who will have the control of governance should be determined through voting. But on August 5, the previous ruling group deprived several generations of this right in the country. To rebuild the democratic process, the people must be given back the right to vote. Without the right to vote, the government has no legitimacy to rule the state.
Professor CR Abrar, a member of the search committee formed for the new election commission, said that hundreds of names have come as proposals for the formation of the commission. From that the committee proposed five names. There was no pressure on the committee in this selection.
Regarding the role of bureaucracy during elections, former secretary Mohammad Sujauddin said that if there are no staunch party officials, the bureaucracy follows the direction of the wind during elections.
Fahmida Khatun, executive director of the research organization CPD, urged to ensure transparency about where the money comes from and how it is spent during the election. At the same time, he said to keep an eye on whether the state money is used to influence the results of the election.
Diplomats of different countries along with some ambassadors and representatives of various local and foreign organizations were present in the event.
