05-26-2006, 09:56 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Art of rigging in Bangladesh</b>
The ruling alliance in Bangladesh, spearheaded by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh (JeIB), is all set to rig the forthcoming elections to the country's National Parliament early next year. Nothing is seemingly being left to chance. The draft electoral rolls released by the country's Election Commission (EC) on May 3, 2006, clearly indicates this. It contains the names of 9.13 crore voters. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), which bases its calculations on the 2001 census figures, the number of people aged 18 years, the minimum age for a voter, and above, should at most be 8.02 crore if no deaths has occurred since the census of 2001, and if every eligible person has been listed.
A report in The Daily Star (May 4, 2006), by Shakhawat Liton, which states this, adds that the 2001 census report was completed soon after the last voters' list was made in 2000 ahead of the elections of 2001. In fact, the number of people above 18 years of age should be less than 8.02 crore as at least 10 lakh people in the age group died in the past five years. Liton further adds that the rolls would be sans another 40 lakh names if the standard calculation, that at least 5 per cent voters do not get listed for various reasons, is factored in. Hence, the actual number of voters should be around 7.52 crore.
Besides, the figure of 9.13 crore marks an unusually high increase of 1.65 crore (22 per cent) over the total of 7.48 crore voters listed in the rolls prepared in 2000. If this is prima facie suspicious, the fact that the rolls did not have the figures of male and female voters and were not on display at many of the designated places on the first day, indicates shoddy work. A report by a Staff Correspondent in The Daily Star (May 4, 2006), identifies some of these as the EC's secretariat in Dhaka and election offices in Chittagong, Moulavibazar, Jessore and other districts - and this when the display of electoral rolls is mandatory at the offices of registration officers (RO) and assistant registration officers (ARO), public places like Upazila Parishad, municipalities, city corporations, ward commissioners' offices and polling centres.
The combined result of skullduggery and incompetence is that Bangladesh has been burdened with 1.11 crore ghost voters in the draft electoral rolls if the BBS calculation is accepted, and 1.71 crore if another 60 lakh voters (10 lakh plus 40 lakh) are taken into account. As things stand, there is virtually no chance of deleting the names of ghost voters. The Election Commission has no mechanism for doing that.
All this is hardly surprising. That the BNP and the JeIB - the latter really calls the shots in the coalition government that the former leads - is clear from the manner in which the electoral rolls have been compiled and events earlier. To begin at the very beginning, the first signs were discernible on May 16, 2004, when Bangladesh's National Parliament passed the Constitution (Fourteenth Amendment) Bill. The raising of the retirement age of Supreme Court judges from 65 years to 67 years, which was the main thing it provided for, was widely believed to have been done to ensure that a pro-government person headed the caretaker government holding the next parliamentary elections.
The next step was the appointment, on May 23, 2005, of Mr MA Aziz as Chief Election Commissioner, in total disregard of the demand by the opposition parties and Bangladesh's civil society for the appointment of a consensus candidate enjoying the confidence of all. The Leader of the Opposition and former Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, immediately alleged that the government had unilaterally appointed the new CEC to clear the way for rigging the coming general elections. On his part, Mr Aziz seemed eager to confirm the allegation by systematically ignoring the two Election Commissioners, Mr AK Mohammad Ali and Mr M Munsef Ali, and running the EC in close cooperation with its Secretary, Mr SM Zakaria, who had been accused of rigging elections on behalf of the ruling BNP-JeIB alliance.
The CEC's unilateral decision on December 6, 2005, to prepare new electoral rolls, announced with a timetable for voters' enumeration and publication of draft and final lists, led to serious protests and litigation. According to a Staff Correspondent's report in The Daily Star (January 2, 2006), there was widespread criticism of the fact that many of the 216,722 enumerators, 55,684 supervisors, 6,270 Assistant Registration Officers and 83 Registration Officers, were supporters of the BNP and JeIB and included many madarsa teachers. While many of them were thoroughly incompetent, competent persons were left out on the allegation of their being sympathizers of opposition parties.
In response to petitions, the Dhaka High Court ruled on January 4, 2006, that the rolls prepared in 2000 should not be set aside but revised and updated. It also observed that the Election Commission members, including the CEC, would take decisions through meetings and discussions, not by exchanging notes. While the EC filed an appeal to the Supreme Court and proceeded with the preparation of fresh rolls, the Government appointed two new ECs, Justice Mahfuzur Rahman and the controversial Mr SM Zakaria, to give the CEC a majority in the EC.
The allegation that many supporters of opposition parties, mainly the Awami League, as well as Hindus, were being left out, heard on the very first day of the enumeration on January 1, 2006, became increasingly frequent as the process continued. Neither the EC nor the Government paid any attention to it. Even after the Government had at last agreed to discuss poll reforms with the 14-party opposition alliance, its insistence of including in its team representatives of the JeIB, the fountainhead of terrorism in Bangladesh, and the fundamentalist Islami Oikya Jote, which has strong terrorist links, has stalled progress. The opposition parties have made clear that they would not participate in talks with war criminals and communalists who had sided with Pakistan during the 1971 Liberation War, and would not contest the elections without poll reforms and a reconstituted EC. India must begin considering its response if the present ruling alliance, pathologically hostile to it, returns to power on the basis of a thoroughly rigged election.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp...writer=karlekar<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The ruling alliance in Bangladesh, spearheaded by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh (JeIB), is all set to rig the forthcoming elections to the country's National Parliament early next year. Nothing is seemingly being left to chance. The draft electoral rolls released by the country's Election Commission (EC) on May 3, 2006, clearly indicates this. It contains the names of 9.13 crore voters. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), which bases its calculations on the 2001 census figures, the number of people aged 18 years, the minimum age for a voter, and above, should at most be 8.02 crore if no deaths has occurred since the census of 2001, and if every eligible person has been listed.
A report in The Daily Star (May 4, 2006), by Shakhawat Liton, which states this, adds that the 2001 census report was completed soon after the last voters' list was made in 2000 ahead of the elections of 2001. In fact, the number of people above 18 years of age should be less than 8.02 crore as at least 10 lakh people in the age group died in the past five years. Liton further adds that the rolls would be sans another 40 lakh names if the standard calculation, that at least 5 per cent voters do not get listed for various reasons, is factored in. Hence, the actual number of voters should be around 7.52 crore.
Besides, the figure of 9.13 crore marks an unusually high increase of 1.65 crore (22 per cent) over the total of 7.48 crore voters listed in the rolls prepared in 2000. If this is prima facie suspicious, the fact that the rolls did not have the figures of male and female voters and were not on display at many of the designated places on the first day, indicates shoddy work. A report by a Staff Correspondent in The Daily Star (May 4, 2006), identifies some of these as the EC's secretariat in Dhaka and election offices in Chittagong, Moulavibazar, Jessore and other districts - and this when the display of electoral rolls is mandatory at the offices of registration officers (RO) and assistant registration officers (ARO), public places like Upazila Parishad, municipalities, city corporations, ward commissioners' offices and polling centres.
The combined result of skullduggery and incompetence is that Bangladesh has been burdened with 1.11 crore ghost voters in the draft electoral rolls if the BBS calculation is accepted, and 1.71 crore if another 60 lakh voters (10 lakh plus 40 lakh) are taken into account. As things stand, there is virtually no chance of deleting the names of ghost voters. The Election Commission has no mechanism for doing that.
All this is hardly surprising. That the BNP and the JeIB - the latter really calls the shots in the coalition government that the former leads - is clear from the manner in which the electoral rolls have been compiled and events earlier. To begin at the very beginning, the first signs were discernible on May 16, 2004, when Bangladesh's National Parliament passed the Constitution (Fourteenth Amendment) Bill. The raising of the retirement age of Supreme Court judges from 65 years to 67 years, which was the main thing it provided for, was widely believed to have been done to ensure that a pro-government person headed the caretaker government holding the next parliamentary elections.
The next step was the appointment, on May 23, 2005, of Mr MA Aziz as Chief Election Commissioner, in total disregard of the demand by the opposition parties and Bangladesh's civil society for the appointment of a consensus candidate enjoying the confidence of all. The Leader of the Opposition and former Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, immediately alleged that the government had unilaterally appointed the new CEC to clear the way for rigging the coming general elections. On his part, Mr Aziz seemed eager to confirm the allegation by systematically ignoring the two Election Commissioners, Mr AK Mohammad Ali and Mr M Munsef Ali, and running the EC in close cooperation with its Secretary, Mr SM Zakaria, who had been accused of rigging elections on behalf of the ruling BNP-JeIB alliance.
The CEC's unilateral decision on December 6, 2005, to prepare new electoral rolls, announced with a timetable for voters' enumeration and publication of draft and final lists, led to serious protests and litigation. According to a Staff Correspondent's report in The Daily Star (January 2, 2006), there was widespread criticism of the fact that many of the 216,722 enumerators, 55,684 supervisors, 6,270 Assistant Registration Officers and 83 Registration Officers, were supporters of the BNP and JeIB and included many madarsa teachers. While many of them were thoroughly incompetent, competent persons were left out on the allegation of their being sympathizers of opposition parties.
In response to petitions, the Dhaka High Court ruled on January 4, 2006, that the rolls prepared in 2000 should not be set aside but revised and updated. It also observed that the Election Commission members, including the CEC, would take decisions through meetings and discussions, not by exchanging notes. While the EC filed an appeal to the Supreme Court and proceeded with the preparation of fresh rolls, the Government appointed two new ECs, Justice Mahfuzur Rahman and the controversial Mr SM Zakaria, to give the CEC a majority in the EC.
The allegation that many supporters of opposition parties, mainly the Awami League, as well as Hindus, were being left out, heard on the very first day of the enumeration on January 1, 2006, became increasingly frequent as the process continued. Neither the EC nor the Government paid any attention to it. Even after the Government had at last agreed to discuss poll reforms with the 14-party opposition alliance, its insistence of including in its team representatives of the JeIB, the fountainhead of terrorism in Bangladesh, and the fundamentalist Islami Oikya Jote, which has strong terrorist links, has stalled progress. The opposition parties have made clear that they would not participate in talks with war criminals and communalists who had sided with Pakistan during the 1971 Liberation War, and would not contest the elections without poll reforms and a reconstituted EC. India must begin considering its response if the present ruling alliance, pathologically hostile to it, returns to power on the basis of a thoroughly rigged election.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp...writer=karlekar<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->