The Election Commission is yet to begin delimitation of parliamentary constituencies, a vital job ahead of the next national election, due to the unavailability of the final report on the latest census.

Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies is currently conducting the post-enumeration check of the census, said Matiar Rahman, director general of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

Demarcation of parliamentary seats, a complicated and technical job which sometimes creates controversy, takes a good amount of time, said EC officials.

In the process, some constituencies become larger and some other become smaller. This means some MP candidates in the next parliamentary election will have to woo new voters in their constituencies while some others would lose voters in their strongholds.

According to EC officials, the commission might need to bring significant changes in the delimitation of parliamentary seats this year as the demarcation will be done after the Population and Housing Census 2022.

The EC's work plan for the 12th parliamentary polls, announced in mid-September last year, set a target of preparing a new policy to demarcate constituencies by reviewing the previous policy by January, and complete delimitation by May.

The commission sent a letter to the BBS over one and a half months back seeking the final census report. But it received the preliminary census report from the BBS.

"We are waiting for the final census report for starting delimitation of parliamentary constituencies. We want to complete the process by May," Election Commissioner Md Alamgir told The Daily Star.

He said the EC would follow its work plan for the 12th national election, likely to be held late December this year or early January next year.

"We will wait for a certain period for the final census report. If we do not get it, we will go ahead with delimitation using the old census data."

The BBS launched the preliminary census report in July last year.

Dilder Hossain, project director of the Population and Housing Census 2022, said they were expecting to have the post-enumeration check report from the BIDS soon.

According to the delimitation of constituencies law, boundaries of Jatiya Sangsad constituencies should be redrawn based on the distribution of population as given in the latest census report, keeping in mind intact administrative units and administrative convenience.

The commission will have to publish a preliminary list of redrawn constituencies and the voters will get the chance to file appeals against the EC's decision.

The EC would be able to finalise demarcation only after settling the objections.

According to the preliminary report of the 2022 census, the country's total population was about 16.52 crore, up from 14.40 crore in 2011 census. Population in Dhaka, Chattogram, Khulna and other cities saw a significant rise.

The latest census said there were 59.79 lakh people in Dhaka north city and 43 lakh in Dhaka south city. There were 69.70 lakh people in undivided Dhaka in 2011.

The latest report says that population of 63 districts increased, but it came down in Jhalakathi in comparison with the data of the 2011 census.

EC officials said this year they might need to redraw more constituencies than in 2018 when the delimitation was done ahead of 11th parliamentary polls.

The then KM Nurul Huda-lead commission brought changes to boundaries of 25 constituencies in 2018. The ATM Shamsul Huda-led commission brought massive changes to 133 constituencies in 2008. That was the first demarcation of constituencies after the 2001 census.

The then commission, headed by Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad, redrew the boundaries of 87 constituencies in 2013 ahead of the 10th parliamentary elections. That was also the first demarcation after the 2011 census.

Election expert Abdul Alim said the EC should follow the international guiding principles for redrawing constituencies. The areas should be as equal as possible. The variation in the number of voters between constituencies should be plus or minus 5 percent, he added.

"We see that one constituency has more than seven lakh voters and another has only about two lakh."

If voters and other stakeholders suspect that the electoral boundaries have been drawn unfairly, it affects the credibility of the entire electoral process, he told The Daily Star.

"Hence, electoral boundaries must be drawn in a manner that promotes credible and fair elections," added Alim who worked on behalf of United Nations with the ATM Shamsul Huda-led EC.

In a democracy, the heads of the government – both presidents and prime ministers – are the subjects of the most media coverage and the targets of most of its criticism. In Bangladesh's case, while the former is more than true, the latter is non-existent. Such is the state of our press freedom. What makes this phenomenon more disheartening is that there is no law that says the media cannot criticise the PM. Still, we have enchained ourselves to self-censorship, perhaps subconsciously remembering what Idi Amin once said when asked about press freedom in his country, "There is freedom of speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech."

The promptness and severity with which some social media critics of our PM have been jailed has created an atmosphere of intimidation. The existence of laws like the ICT, DSA, CSA, etc, the misuse of defamation and other laws, and the collective demonisation of independent media by the pulpits of power and their cacophonous resonance from a domesticated media have taught us better.

It is against this backdrop that we raise a question about a remark made by the prime minister, last Tuesday, about the BNP chief's treatment abroad. Our PM said, "…she is 80 years old, at this age death is imminent; and she is also sick, so why this hullabaloo? No amount of crying will help this situation…" (own translation from the original in Bangla).

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By this, did the PM mean that, as Khaleda Zia is 80 years old, we should stand back and see her wither away? Don't we believe that it is the Almighty who decides when a person's time comes to make the Eternal Journey? Is it not the practice in every country, culture and religion to extend all possible help to save a person's life? Whether a person will live beyond 80 or not is not our decision to make. Our duty is to try our best and do everything in our power to save the person's life. That's what civilisation is all about. One may have hundreds of reasons to despise their opponent, but such public comments can only further fuel hatred.

Our PM made another statement on Monday, in which she said, "Democracy must continue in Bangladesh at any cost. In no way should the undemocratic forces assume power."

We support her wholeheartedly on this score. It is a point of Bangladesh's pride that, however flawed it may be, we continue to practise democracy and have made significant economic progress while remaining within its broad framework. But is the PM's government and her party working to strengthen it? Did her continuous rule for the past 15 years – 20 years if we count her first term – enjoying unrivalled power and undisturbed tenure (no hartals or disruptions) – consolidate democracy? Did this unfettered rule, never before enjoyed by any other party or even military dictator, strengthen any of the institutions of democracy, such as the parliament, judiciary, media and statutory bodies, that ensure accountability and rights?

While the PM reiterated her commitment to democracy, her party's secretary general and roads and transport minister, Obaidul Quader, remarked in a public meeting on Tuesday, "Where is the sanction? Where is the visa policy? Secret negotiations have been completed so there is nothing to worry about." "Sanction" and "visa policy" point to the secret negotiations with the US. He further said, "The US needs Delhi. Delhi is there, we are there." This implies that the second party in the secret deal must be India. So, according to the secretary general of the ruling party, a secret deal has been worked out with the US and India so that the AL will have "nothing to worry about."

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This implies, based on the words of the ruling party secretary general, as Delhi supports it, AL will continue to be in power. What else can "nothing to worry about" mean? And what does this say about our sovereignty and dignity as a country and a people? About the independence of our government, since its continuance in power is apparently determined by our neighbour? What does this say about the relevance of our elections?

Where does all this leave us, the voters? In the 2014 election, 153 MPs were elected uncontested. For a house of 300 MPs, that meant that a majority was attained to form the next government without a single vote being cast. Then, in 2018, voting took place the night before. And this time around, the "result" of the election is being "negotiated" with external powers. Is that how democracy works these days in Bangladesh? Is that what the AL secretary general is referring to when he says "khela hobe (the game is on)"? It seems our election is all set to be an example of "match-fixing" rather than of "fair play."

Election season in a democracy is when power changes hands from the government to the people. Theoretically, it is an occasion when the people once again feel empowered. Tragically, this is not the case for Bangladesh.

If we analyse how the government is oppressing the opposition under a legal guise, it becomes evident that the "level playing field" does not exist for them. Whatever other records this government may have set, nothing compares to the use of court cases to victimise the opposition. According to sources at the BNP office, around 1.12 lakh cases have been filed implicating 39.78 lakh BNP leaders and activists since 2009. In addition, there are "unnamed accused" whose number exceeds those of the named. (The latter category is used by police to implicate anybody at whatever stage of an investigation, to extort bribes.) Even if we disregard 50 percent of these – taking into account possible exaggeration – nothing can explain this amount of lawsuits except political victimisation.

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According to a September 20 report by Prothom Alo, Habib un Nabi, joint secretary general of BNP, has 450 cases against him; Saiful Alam, past president of Jubo Dal, has 350 cases against him; Jahangir Hossain, leader of the youth wing of BNP, faces 317 cases; Sultan Salahuddin, president of Jubo Dal, has 315 cases against him; Amanullah Aman, adviser to the BNP chairperson, is facing 250 cases; and 180 cases have been made against Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi. Most senior members of BNP's highest decision-making body – the standing committee – have cases against them. There are many others who have more than 150 cases against each of them. Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary general of BNP, has 98 cases filed against him. A senior female leader, Selina Rahman, who is more than 80 years old, has four cases against her, one of which is for arson – specifically for setting fire to a bus. Appearing in court for each case can easily take up the whole year. Most of these cases are 5-10 years old and have remained dormant for most of the ruling party's tenure. Now that the election is approaching, suddenly, these cases are acquiring a new life, with police becoming too eager to "serve the law."

We don't need any other statistic but the above example of cases against the biggest opposition to prove that all claims by the government and Awami League about holding a free and fair election is far from credible.

Our chief election commissioner (CEC) said on Wednesday that he is not worried about the "legitimacy" of the elections and is determined to hold "a lawful election." That is precisely what we are afraid of. Again, in 2014, as many as 153 MPs were "elected" uncontested. These so-called elections were legally "correct." But were they morally and ethically so? Was it an exercise in democracy? How do you think 4,80,21,983 voters out of a total of 9,19,65,167 felt when they could not cast their votes, for which they had waited five years?

Yes, we must have a "lawful election," but it must also be a "credible election" – credible to the voters and not simply to the winning party. By far, the most important aspect of an election is the "free and unfettered expression of the public will." Ensuring this is the most important task of the Election Commission, not only the formal compliance with the law. The CEC must be conscious of democratic, moral and ethical aspects of an election, not just the legal ones.

Mahfuz Anam is the editor and publisher of The Daily Star.

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The Election Commission's biometric verification system--which is needed for selling mobile phone connections--has become active again after around 55 hours.

Mobile network operators said the service restored at around at 3am today. The problem started at around 8:30pm on June 18.

Earlier, people have not been able to purchase SIMs and related services over the last two days as mobile phone operators have been unable to verify buyer's information.

On June 19, the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh sent a letter to the EC requesting to resolve the issue.

Such an outage affected SIM activation, replacement and other biometric verification-related services, said officials of the telecom operators.

Some maintenance works are ongoing and many are facing problems in getting access to the server, said AKM Humayun Kabir, director general for the national identity wing at the EC, earlier yesterday.

According to technology experts, experiencing such a prolonged outage is improbable and reflects unprofessionalism.