Monkey on the pole: The many slips of the election commissioners
Subject only to the Constitution and any other law, the election commissioners enjoyed unlimited inherent power to make the election free and fair
The resignation of chief election commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal and four election commissioners became inevitable after the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina regime on 5 August in an incomparable uprising.
Their wholesale resignation came at the one month milestone of the disgraceful downfall of the regime which was installed in the 7 January election. This election was nothing but a continuation of the disdainful mockery with the people's constitutional right to elect their MPs to form a parliament that would form a government.
A mere procedural formality was maintained to hold the election participated by only Hasina's Awami League, her party allies and ''dummy independent candidates'' of her party to give it a competitive look for the benefit of the international observers and allies– in essence, a theatre of sorts for the benefit of an audience.
According to article 118 (4) of the Constitution, Kazi Habibul Awal and his team were bound by their oath to be independent in the exercise of their functions. Subject only to the Constitution and any other law, they enjoyed unlimited inherent power to make the election free and fair.
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In reality they acted as a ''dummy independent'' constitutional body in exercise of their functions subject to only the will of the party in power.
So the fate of Kazi Awal and his team was sealed on 5 August, the day Hasina abruptly resigned and fled the country for India to avert the wrath of the protesters.
Flashback
When Bangladesh was all set for another stage managed election, on 27 November 2023, one and a half months before the 7 January polls, CEC Kazi Awal said the ''election must be free, fair and credible to salvage Bangladesh's democracy, safeguard the nation's economy, and secure its future.''
"If we want to protect our economy, and our future, the election must be fair, acceptable and credible. That is why we want a free, fair and credible election," he said, reflecting the need of the time for Bangladesh facing an unprecedented political crisis at home and diplomatic pressure from the rest of the world except for India, China and Russia for a credible election.
Kazi Awal being the head of the EC, however, in his last press conference on his last day in office acknowledged the fact: The 7 January election was controversial. But that is too little too late and this 'confession' does not absolve them of their crime
He and his team however miserably failed to deliver on their constitutional mandate for making the election free and fair. Their failure added another chapter to the series of textbook examples of trampling on the people's voting rights, destruction of electoral democracy and undermining the institution they were oathbound to serve.
The election was engineered by the then Sheikh Hasina government in such an extraordinary way that it ensured her party's win in more than two- third parliamentary seats even before the day of voting.
The remaining ceremonial part of the show was staged on 7 January which was only aimed at picking their chosen opposition for the new parliament to be constituted after the election ended officially.
Neither Awal nor any of his colleagues expressed any remorse or regret for the crimes committed against democracy under their direct supervision. Next day, they appeared relaxed while talking to the media and expressed their satisfaction for a ''successful'' completion of the big job.
Kazi Awal being the head of the EC, however, in his last press conference on his last day in office acknowledged the fact: The 7 January election was controversial.
But that is too little too late and this 'confession' does not absolve them of their crimes and was not enough to prevent their disgraceful exit from the showpiece infrastructure housing the election commission since 2012. The EC got its own building before the 2014 general election. But its fall began from then.
The path of the predecessors
In a civilised world, politicians or top executives often apologise and resign after their failures to deliver. In Bangladesh, no one fails, so no one resigns.
Like his two immediate predecessors, Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed and Nurul Huda, Kazi Awal and his team opted for holding the offices as a job in retired life from the government administration.
But the appeal and warning he made on 27 November came to haunt him. The election that allowed Sheikh Hasina to be sworn in as prime minister for a consecutive fourth term in January could neither ''salvage Bangladesh's democracy'' nor could ''safeguard the nation's economy and secure its future.''
The ouster of the Hasina government exposed the real Bangladesh lying under a devastated wreckage of state institutions. Every institution except for the armed forces collapsed like a house of cards after the fall of the Hasina regime.
Kazi Awal and the four election commissioners who resigned on Thursday now look like debris of the wreckage of the institution bearing the name: Bangladesh Election Commission. That institution was however brutally destroyed and trampled twice before their arrival here as the leaders of the institution.
Luck however did not favour Kazi Awal and his team like his two immediate predecessors.
In 2012, Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed, a retired civil servant, succeeded ATM Shamsul Huda who led the EC to conduct the most credible election in Bangladesh history in December 2008 restoring people's confidence in the electoral system by accomplishing a herculean task.
Kazi Rakibuddin and his team could not fill in the shoes of those they succeeded. They opened a new chapter of the history book by holding the January 2014 election which set an unprecedented record of uncontested election of 153 MPs without having a single vote being cast amid a boycott by the opposition parties. That election set the tone of the standard of elections during the rest of their tenure. All the elections to local government bodies were marked by widespread election irregularities by the then ruling party men. The elections turned out to be tools to take over local government bodies.
Then came Nurul Huda succeeding Kazi Rakib in 2017 to conduct another parliamentary election to be held in the following year. Nurul Huda and his team were lucky in terms of BNP led opposition camp's participation in the December 2018 election.
But the extraordinary plan was in the making which was beyond the ''Little Men's" wild imagination. The election was rigged at midnight by ruling party men in active cooperation of the local administration and the law enforcement agencies. That election was known as ''midnight election'' as freedom was rigged at midnight.
Yet, Nurul Huda and his team were lucky. They never expressed regret for their failure to deliver on their constitutional mandate and oath of offices. They continued in offices for the remaining tenure of their five year term.
The dubious records set by Kazi Rakibuddin and Nurul Huda were in favour of Kazi Awal.
He and his team continued in offices with a new government installed by the January parliamentary election.
When time came for holding upazila parishad elections countrywide, Kazi Awal emerged again with his old record to play, speaking about the importance of a free and fair election.
An example. Kazi Awal on Apr 25 2024, said the upazila parishad elections must be held in a free and fair manner at any cost.
His remarks "We have to prove that Bangladesh has democracy and that's why we must hold the upazila polls free and fair," was intriguing.
He and his team could do nothing just three months ago when the national election was managed by the party in power. Yet, he proved that Bangladesh was a democracy by holding local elections in a free and fair manner.
His call fell flat again. He and his team were made witness of rampant violation of election laws and polls marked by widespread irregularities.
Kazi Awal and his team failed to prove that '' Bangladesh has a democracy.''
Yet, there was nothing for them to worry about in the EC for their remaining tenure until 5 August. The government installed by the election they conducted collapsed, sealing the fate of Kazi Awal and four election commissioners.
Their disgraceful resignation does not match with the two other previous instances, one by Justice KM Sadek and other by Justice MA Aziz.
Justice Sadek led EC conducted the 15 February 1996 one sided parliamentary election amid a boycott by all major opposition parties. However the then BNP government formed through that election amended the Constitution introducing the non-partisan election time government which resolved a grave political crisis that prevailed then in the country.
Justice Sadek resigned paving the way for the non-partisan caretaker government formed in March after the resignation of then PM Khaleda Zia. The new EC was formed with former bureaucrat Abu Hena as CEC and it held the June 1996 election in which Hasina led AL won and returned to power after 21 years.
Justice MA Aziz was appointed as CEC in 2005 by the then BNP government who was supposed to conduct the ninth parliamentary election either at the end of 2006 or early 2007.
But the EC led by Justice Aziz was mired into controversy over preparation of the voter list. The then opposition AL led alliance refused to accept him. But at that time a bigger contentious issue was Justice KM Hasan who was constitutionally supposed to be the chief adviser of the election time government to take office after the end of the BNP govt's tenure.
The rest is history. The crisis spilled over making it a storm resulting in the declaration of state of emergency in January 2007 suspending the election scheduled for January 22 amid a boycott by AL and other opposition parties.
Justice Aziz and his team resigned. ATM Shamsul Huda was made a new CEC in February 2007 to lead the EC that carried out Herculean tasks such as preparation of voter lists with photographs and sweeping electoral reforms. The December 2008 election conducted by them was widely lauded. But that was the last free and fair election Bangladesh saw.
On his last day of office Kazi Habibul Awal however spoke the truth: Holding of a free and fair election is not possible in such a confrontational political culture.
This is the bitter truth in Bangladesh politics. None of the parties of the game knows how to accept defeat. If there is any scope to influence the elections, it is abused to the fullest.
That is why all the previous elections since 1973 held under a partisan government were neither free nor fair.
Opposition parties could never defeat the party that was in power during the election. Staying in power during the election gives unlimited and unchecked scopes to abuse state powers to manipulate the elections.
Hasina herself knew this dark secret. That is why she scrapped the nonpartisan election time government introduced through a constitutional amendment by the sixth parliament formed in the February 1996 election.
Hasina abused the parliament formed through the most credible election held in December 2008 to cancel the interim government system that ensured free and fair elections.
The rest is history. Hasina clung to power by holding three stage managed elections until her downfall on 5 August.
The underlying message of the saga of trampling the election system since independence is the severe absence of democratic norms and values in the political parties that came to power in turn in the last five decades.
The election commission performs excellently when parliamentary polls are held under a nonpartisan caretaker government. The situation is completely opposite when elections are held under a partisan government.
The last three consecutive elections since 2014 have become glaring examples of this simple fact.
How can an institution like the EC grow in such an unhealthy environment?
The story of the EC reminds one of the monkey and the slippery pole arithmetic problem in middle school. The 1991 election held after the ouster of the autocratic Ershad regime was the first fair election in an independent bangladesh. It climbed higher on the pole in the following years in the elections in June 1996, 2001 and 2008, except for a slip in the February 1996 one sided election.
The last time the monkey scrambled higher was in the December 2008 election after massive electoral reforms following a grave political crisis that delayed the election by around two years. Yet, the EC was enjoying a peak in people's appreciation in the electoral system.
But the insidious attacks on the election system since the 2014 election, made its downward slip unstoppable until the fall of the Hasina regime and one of the many builders of her regime– Kazi Habibul Awal and his team.
