Election system trampled. What needs to be done now

The Election Commission has fallen from the Ritz to the rubble, leaving elections being subjected to "enforced disappearance", through the collective and multifaceted attacks on the election system since the 2014 parliamentary polls.

Three consecutive "stage-managed" parliamentary elections were conducted by the successive ECs that only provided the Sheikh Hasina regime with so-called "legal formality", which her regime described as its "legitimacy" to cling to the power for more than 10 years.  

She and her party leaders have never taken a break to claim that they were elected by the people. But the reality on the ground was otherwise. No election, except polls to a few local government bodies held in the last 10 years, was free and fair.

Every time the general elections,  known as national festivals of democracy, came around, we were in a state of war as the party in power tried to manoeuvre the entire electoral process in its favour, and opposition parties took to the streets to protest, which often turned violent.  

The ultimate outcomes were dangerously ominous.

People were denied their constitutional right to elect their MPs to form the government; they were denied the right to say anything about how the country was being run; their dissenting voices were brutally muzzled by the draconian cyber laws and excessive use of force by the government. People lost freedom. People became powerless though the constitution declares that all powers of the State belong to the people.

The EC, a vital institution constitutionally responsible for ensuring free, fair and impartial elections, miserably failed to deliver on duties and failed the people.

The constitution declares that the EC shall be independent in the exercise of its functions and be subject only to the constitution and any other law. In reality, those who took oath as chief election commissioners and election commissioners to "faithfully discharge the duties of their offices and "protect, preserve and defend" the constitution opted to remain silent and let the show go on as per the will of the government and the party in power.

They opted to remain silent when 153 MPs were elected unopposed in the 2014 parliamentary election in an extraordinary tactic by the then-ruling Awami League. They again opted to remain silent when ballot papers were stuffed the night before the 2018 polls, which was known as the "midnight" election. They saw nothing wrong when the ruling Awami League applied a different playbook of allowing its leaders to contest the 2024 elections against party-nominated candidates to make the election competitive. Needless to say, the same was repeated in the elections to various local government bodies. Most of the local government bodies were grabbed by the ruling party men in the name of elections.

All along, the law enforcement agencies' members deployed to ensure a congenial atmosphere for holding free and fair elections sided with the ruling party to manage the elections. The lower judiciary and the police were abused by the government to suppress the opposition's movement for free and fair elections.

What took place in the name of an election, in fact, was not a genuine election. All the arrangements such as polls schedule, filing nomination papers, polling day etc were mere formalities.

They were not in conformity with the universal definition of election as the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: "The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections, which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures."

What had happened when the country was run by martial law rulers who blatantly abused the electoral democracy to legitimise their rule has unfortunately taken place in recent years in Bangladesh during the so-called elected government.  

Elections also disappeared from most of the trade and professional bodies. Either ruling party leaders or pro-government people grabbed all those bodies to propagate the government's "agenda for development" and to gain undue benefits.

The records speak the truth. No free and fair general election was held under a political party government. All four free and fair general elections were held under non-partisan election-time governments. This is the tragic side of Bangladesh politics: a political party that has run the country for five years cannot guarantee a free and fair election allowing people to choose their government.    

Herculean task ahead

It's now not an easy task to repair the election administration and regain people's confidence in it.

Yet, what the EC-led by ATM Shamsul Huda had done during the Fakhruddin Ahmed-led caretaker government shows a way to decide the future course of action. The accomplishment of a massive task by the Huda-led EC helped to restore people's confidence.

Preparation of the voter list with photographs of eight crore voters was done with active participation of the armed forces, which was an almost impossible task. 

Unprecedented scale of reforms in electoral laws were carried out, such as registration of political parties with the EC, intra-party democratic practice, empowering grassroots level leaders to pick the party's parliamentary candidates, and elections at every level of the party's committees.

Initially, many people were sceptical about the ambitious project. Formed in February 2007, the EC-led by Huda announced an electoral roadmap in July of the same year. It specified the timeframe for completing the tasks it had before it, including the preparation of a voter list with photographs, electoral reforms, and holding the stalled parliamentary polls at the end of 2008. He delivered on his promises. The 2008 election was largely acclaimed at home and abroad.

The European Union Election Observation Mission in its report said it "assessed the conduct of the JS elections in line with international standards and best practice for democratic elections."

Elections to various local government bodies until the tenure of the Huda-led EC came to an end in February 2012, were also largely free and fair.

But the biggest threat to electoral democracy appeared with the abolition of the non-partisan caretaker government in 2011 by the AL government, making the free and fair elections illusive.

The preparation of the voter list with photos had buried the pervasive controversy over the authenticity of the list, as opposition parties in the past had always made accusations of fake voters being included. The uphill task accomplished by the then-Huda-led EC regained people's confidence in the election commission, which had been damaged by the immediate past EC, led by Justice Aziz.

But history took a reverse turn since the 2014 elections, which has made all reforms and progress redundant.  

Shakhawat Liton. Sketch: TBS

In November last year, the incumbent Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal said the upcoming national elections must be free, fair and credible to salvage Bangladesh's democracy, safeguard the nation's economy, and secure its future. He made the remarks amid unprecedented diplomatic pressure by the USA and other Western countries for a free and fair election.

But like his two predecessors Nurul Huda and Kazi Rakib Uddin Ahmed, who led the EC to hold the 2014 and 2018 elections respectively, CEC Awal presented Bangladesh the 7 January stage-managed elections, which was unique in many ways.

The warning of CEC Awal came true within months and the rest is now history.  

The challenges facing the EC and the country as well are bigger than those were 15 years ago during the Fakhruddin Ahmed-led caretaker government.

[Shakhawat Liton is the deputy executive editor at The Business Standard]