EC finally gets those on web

In the face of huge criticism from different quarters, the Election Commission yesterday uploaded affidavits of candidates for upazila parishad elections on its website.
The EC move came eight days after the deadline passed for candidates to withdraw their nominations. Upazila polls begin on February 19 in the first phase.
During last one week, the EC adopted dilly-dallying tactics in making the affidavits public on different excuses. It said the task of processing the affidavits was yet to be completed.
Several newspapers yesterday ran reports that the EC intends to hide the information of candidates to protect the interest of a particular quarter.
As per the electoral law, returning officers will take necessary measures for massive publicity of the candidates' affidavits after the last date of withdrawal of candidature.  
Publicity will have to be done at public places so that the voters can access the information about the contenders. Additionally, returning officers would send copies of affidavits to the EC through internet to upload those on websites.
In the first phase of upazila polls, a total of 432 aspirants will vie for the post of chairman, 513 will run for vice-chairman and 329 for woman vice-chairman in 98 upazilas.
Election commissioners and EC officials several times in last one week said they have directed all the returning officers to hang the affidavits in the notice boards of their offices.
Seeking anonymity, some officials at the EC secretariat said the commission was not interested in uploading the affidavits on its website on the presumption that the ruling Awami League might be displeased by the move.
The EC had made public the affidavits of lawmaker aspirants before the January 5 parliamentary polls. Many newspapers ran reports on the affidavits that some AL lawmaker hopefuls amassed huge wealth in last five years.
Embarrassed by the revelations on the AL candidates, a party delegation had met the chief election commissioner just a few days before the January 5 polls and requested him to stop disclosing the wealth statements of the MP aspirants.
Following the meeting, technical fault was reported with the EC's website and surfers could not access the wealth reports for several days.
However, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad yesterday told newsmen that the EC had no intention to hide the affidavits from the voters.
“The affidavits are already available with the field level offices [returning officers]. It will also be available on the website,” he added.
Meanwhile, The Daily Star's correspondents in Bogra, Rangpur and Jhenidah reported that affidavits were not displayed in the notice boards in the offices of the returning officers. But officials said anyone could collect copies of affidavits from them.
TECHNICAL GLITCH PERSISTS
Yesterday, The Daily Star faced difficulties accessing the affidavits of the candidates of January 5 polls on the EC website.
A deputy secretary at the EC secretariat said surfers could not access some pages of the website for the last few days.
EC's Systems Manager Rafiqul Hoque said there might be some temporary technical problems with the website, which would be looked into immediately.