Towards elections

This is a third eye view of the fast developing political situation around the election process initiated by the caretaker government. Contrary to criticism in the media and in public mind, the present caretaker government has progressed well towards its main objective of holding a free, fair and credible election before the year is out. The roadblocks haven't been totally removed, but certainly some of them have skilfully been averted and quite a few long overdue administrative reforms accomplished.
Notable among them are the separation of the Judiciary from the Executive, establishment of the Supreme Judicial Council and a Judicial Service Commission to fill up a large number of vacancies in the courts, setting up of an independent Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), re-shuffling of the Public Service Commission (PSC) and the setting up of the Truth and Accountability Commission (TAC).
The ACC started functioning vigorously, and indicted a fairly large number of allegedly corrupt politicians and officials. Many of them were tried and had been in jail but are now bailed out by the High Court for varied periods. The ACC chief seems to be unhappy about it and is taking all precaution not to leave any loose end in framing charges and following the correct legal procedures. The TAC has been challenged in the court, but it has, nevertheless been put in place, and has started receiving prayers from quite a few individuals for disclosing their hidden wealth with relevant information. The TAC is conducting their hearing with gusto.
The reconstituted Election Commission (EC) headed by senior retired civil service officer got into its job seriously from day one and had worked out a time schedule for the elections at all levels. This was announced on July 15 last with a now-famous road map for holding the elections. The road-map was discussed with the political parties but most of them opposed this move. They perhaps feared that with their top leaders in jail and unable to mobilize people, they would not get the votes. Presumably, EC had also realized this and decided to ignore the opposition and go ahead with the polling schedule. Accordingly, elections in four city corporations and nine municipalities had been held on the due dates and were widely acclaimed.
For the first time in history, a voters' list with pictures was prepared in record time and was used in these elections. Though the major parties first refused to take part in these elections, eventually, they unofficially fielded candidates, under pressures from their grassroots workers. Some of them contested while serving their prison terms and won by a landslide margin. According to neutral observers, these elections were held in a very transparent way and were free from rigging. Elections to the 482 Upazilas (sub-districts) are now due to take place in two phases beginning from October 23. At this stage also the parties have raised the same points on the same grounds. Perhaps this is more to use this as a bargaining point to secure their topmost leaders' release from jail. But now, with one of them released for medical treatment abroad, and the other is likely to be released soon, the ice may start melting.
Now the only major snag that has remained unsolved is the vital amendments of the Representation of the People Order (RPO) 1972 enacted over three decades ago. Many of the political parties were aware of the deficiencies in electoral procedures as contained in the old RPO and indeed urged EC for reforms, particularly, of some unreasonable provisions including the ban on floor crossing. None in the past had ever taken initiative in this regard, including the three successive parliamentary governments. The caretaker government in order to ensure a meaningful election and to imbibe a democratic spirit within the parties has now proposed them. The main features of the amendments are the registration of parties fulfilling certain conditions and undertaking democratic changes in their respective constitutions to practice democracy within the parties as well as doing away with front organizations and branches abroad. A lot of research by the civil society had also shown that until long-overdue political and electoral reforms were effected, a mere repetition of the election would not turn the corner.
One of the main reasons for bringing about the amendments in RPO is to prevent dynastic rule and rule by one party with absolute majority. It has been seen in the past that politicians in power always try to develop a sort of personality cult in their favour. In developing countries, a trend grows among the followers too, to project a larger-than-life image of their leaders reducing all others to nothing. This leads to concentration of power in the hands of a Prime Minister that cuts across the spirit of democracy and leads to democratic dictatorship. Eventually this leads to corruption at all levels and in all spheres.
There is a general feeling among the grassroots workers in both the major parties that they ought to take part in the local level elections, as otherwise they would lose ground to the rival party. Their top hierarchy, though, took a rigid stand that first, the Parliament's election should be held, and the Parliament would then decide how and when the local level elections were to be held. EC seems to have been aware of this, which is why it had gone ahead rightly with local level elections. The amended RPO, 2008 is still being disputed, but hopefully, both sides are likely to take a flexible attitude and come to an agreement with regard to the dates by which registration of parties may be completed.
On the debit side, the performance of the caretaker government in routine functions had been sloppy and slothful. Its efforts to bring the chaotic law and order back to normal was largely due to the intervention and vigilance of the Armed Forces and the police though the allegations of the human rights organisarions regarding cross-fire deaths still remain unanswered. Its performance in the management of the economy had been dismal. Unabated price-hike of essentials has caused great resentment among the people. Judged against their preoccupation with the complex and difficult political situation, these failures of the caretaker government may, however, be looked at leniently.

The writer is a former Director General of External Publicity.