An election is considered free and fair when all citizens eligible to be voters can cast their choice without any influence of fear or favour and the counting of votes and results are declared on factual position as per laid down procedure. The first and the last portion of the said definition emphasizing "all eligible voters" and the declaration of results "on factual basis" by the authority have been included due to the reality in Bangladesh.

Recently, a big problem cropped up in preparation of the voters list and the matter went up to the highest court. A list prepared by the Election Commission (EC) subsequent to that was considered faulty as names of many eligible voters were alleged not included in the final record whereas many false names or ghost voters were listed.

In Bangladesh, there are instances that government officials are used to manipulate the vote count and declare result not on the basis of authenticity. In an environment of pervasive corruption as in Bangladesh administration officials working as returning officers, assistant returning officers, presiding officers, polling officers, and officials responsible for maintaining law and order are prone to become partisan on receipt of bribe from participating candidate or the political party.

Basic issue to have free and fair election is to keep the voters free from undue favour and fear. There are election rules and laws of land to facilitate that. But in reality, due to lack of efficiency, honesty and willingness of existing bureaucracy responsible for conduct of election there is hardly any difficulty to by pass all the so called rules and laws unchallenged. This has made our election a game of black money and muscle, the more you have the better chance that you would come out successful. Free and fair election is possible as is some times seen only if all the contesting candidates are either unwilling to or incapable in use of black money and muscle. Of course, no body should deny that free and fair election is becoming rarer with each election.

Owners of muscle and black money, that is criminals, are thus drawing favourable attention from the political parties to be included in the party fold. In the process, criminals are being continuously going up in the position of political power in greater numbers with passage of time. They are now fitted in different tiers of political parties, are filling up elected positions like members of parliament and are even becoming ministers of the elected government. In short, criminals are taking over the positions of leadership of the society. Corruption, lack of social justice and rule of law, disparity and absence of good governance are the natural consequences.

One of the important factors for election victory of the immediate past government of four-party alliance had been to give nomination in larger numbers to candidates with big money and criminal muscle power. They out-numbered their rivals in this respect and established superiority in raw power to influence the election with money and by intimidating the voters.

The above result of success has encouraged the four-party alliance government to further concentrate on promoting the criminals and criminology to flourish further to be used for their party interest specially with a view to win the next general election. All the above were done under the authority of state power legalized with the seal of election victory under a so-called democratic system.

From the first day the four-party alliance government took over office till the last day when they handed over the same to the caretaker, all the tasks were carried out giving priority to influence voters in the next general election. That is, from the first day in office till the last day all the efforts of the immediate past BNP led alliance government was to ensure that the next general election due for early 2007 is held un-free and un-fair.

On the first day, a big ministry was sworn in with 60 ministers and a total of about 100 having the rank and status of ministers. This number was unprecedented in the history of Bangladesh. The above was done at a time when the incumbent four-party alliance government claimed to have inherited from the immediate past government of Awami league a shattered and vulnerable economy. Logic suggests there should have been measures of austerity if the economy was so fragile and definitely formation of a big ministry was not justified.

Ministers and the person having the rank and facilities of ministers were then put in charge of not only government ministries but all district administration including each and every position of governmental authority. Positions of semi-government, autonomous bodies, and constitutional positions were filled up with political appointees, irrespective of their professional, educational background, or capability. Only one quality was considered -- the loyalty to the parties of ruling alliance.

With the help of party loyalists, administrative affairs like appointment, promotion, posting, transfer, making of OSD (officer on special duty) or even throwing out by forced retirement were carried out for personal and partisan interest by manipulating the rules, bending or even violating the same, keeping a special eye on the coming election. Idea is to fill up all election related positions with personnel faithful to parties of alliance government. Even the second and third tier of those positions reportedly was filled up in the same way with people having vested interest with the ruling coalition.

Almost all sorts of business, buying, selling, construction, etc. throughout all government semi-government, and other similar offices were done by manipulated tendering and huge sum of money were plundered through corruption by the party leadership with the active co-operation of their planted people in command positions.

Immediate past alliance government considered citizens of the country as voters only, with the distinction of "in favour" or "against" the ruling alliance. They were treated respectively in case of allocating government fund for infrastructural developments and other relief and rehabilitation programs. A special cell was formed in the PM's secretariat for dishing out funds as rewards and restricting the same as punishment in the name of PM's priority or PM's commitment in a way to influence the next election.

About 70,000 people accused of violence, terrorism, murder, extortion, etc were cleared by the alliance government as soon as they took power. The ground for release was that the cases were filed against innocent people for political harassment by the last Awami League government. As is quite common, there may have been a few cases where innocent people were victimized. But, by and large, majority of the cases were based on factual evidence.

These people were mostly connected with parties belonging to ruling alliance government. On release they along with other musclemen of the ruling party were put above the law. No cases against them were accepted by the police force. In addition, criminals not belonging to ruling party or alliance were allured to join the party in power by providing similar immunity from police against the threat of being victim of extra-judicial killing by law enforcers in case they refused. Moreover, all musclemen were allowed to participate in corrupt practices to earn huge booty for them.

With sufficient black money and big gangs of goons under their disposal, a partisan Election Commission, and a faithful administration to conduct the election the ruling alliance had to ensure one thing that is to have a loyal chief of caretaker government (CTG) in order to achieve the target of having an un-fair and un-free election which would guarantee success of all their criminal candidates (godfathers).

Just past alliance government made amendment to constitution to have a particular person of their choice to head CTG. Failing to accomplish that goal under agitation by opposition parties, they maneuvered and misinterpreted the provisions of the constitution to make the ruling party nominated president also the head of CTG. On the last day of the immediate past alliance government the final job was to hand over power to their party nominated president to head a partisan caretaker government with a view to make certain their victory in a fraudulent election..

There should not be any doubt that in case the just past ruling alliance can get away with their sinister design and become successful in having a manipulated result in their favour by not allowing the next general election to be free and fair, there would remain no chance of having a free and fair election in future.

Criminals would continue to get prominence in politics and would eventually take over the society by elbowing out decent people. Citizens would lose their right to elect representatives of their choice and would also lose their power to ensure that the acts of their representatives really stand for the desire of at least a majority of people of the country.

So the current movement for achieving a free and fair election should not be considered a fight for power only, even if that might be in the mind of opposition political parties. It is, in fact, a struggle to secure basic rights in a democratic culture for establishing accountability of government to achieve rule of law and an exploitation-free, happy, and prosperous society.

GM Quader was an MP in the Eight Parliament.