Dhaka – Country’s eminent citizens yesterday said that the major challenge of the newly appointed Election Commission (EC) is to bring back people’s trust on them that they would not be adherent to any political party.Former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda said, “It’s very important for the new commission to gain the trust of people. The commission would make such a trust through their speech and work that they are not the supporters of any party. They should be careful of not making any sort of doubt through their work.”
The observation came at a roundtable on ‘Challenges before the New Commission’ organised by Shushasoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan), a civil society platform for good governance, held at the Jatiya Press Club in the capital, with Shujan president M Hafizuddin Khan in the chair.
Shamsul Huda also suggested the new commission to hold talks with the political parties.
The discussants also said that the commission should work to change the notion of people about the commission because people have questions whether they would be able to cast their own votes without any intimidation.
Former election commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Shakhawat Hussain said, “The major challenge for this commission is to change the notion of people about them. People say whether they would be able to cast votes.”
He also said that only election commission cannot hold an acceptable polls rather the attitude of the election time government is also important.
Columnist Syed Abul Maksud said, “The commission’s duty is to ensure level playing field for all political parties during elections. Only administrative skill is not enough to hold fair and impartial elections. It also needs moral strength.”
Former cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder suggested for using electronic voting machine (EVM) system in the limited scale in the local body polls before the general elections.
Shujan secretary Badiul Alam Majumder presented a keynote paper mentioning that there are 19 challenges before the new commission. It includes the number of commissioners, maintaining independence and impartiality, recruitment of officers through deputation, keeping the reform work continuing, bringing amendment in legal framework, implementation of law, making voter roll, delimitation, violence and electoral code of conduct.
He alleged that the past commission has derailed the electoral system and a kind of distrust has created among people about the electoral system.
Dhaka University Prof Asif Nazrul said, “An impartial and fair poll cannot be expected if there is no election time supportive government.” – Staff Reporter
