Upazila poll issue
THE current impasse between the political parties and the Election Commission over whether the upazila elections should be held before the national elections, as proposed by the EC, or after, as proposed by the parties, threatens to throw the long-awaited national elections into confusion.
The desire for national polls by December is a universal one. The political parties, the EC, the CTG, the public, indeed, the entire country is unanimous that these polls take place on time. And take place on time they must. This should be the starting point for all discussion.
Taking this as the starting point, we believe that it behooves both sides to do everything in their power to ensure that the process is not derailed.
To this end, we urge both the EC and the political parties to take the public (and the media) fully on board and fully explain the rationale for their positions to us. It seems to us that the concerns of each side can be satisfied by the other, and that the gaps between the two are not unbridgeable, provided there is the will to resolve things.
Political parties have yet to sufficiently explain what harm will be done to electoral or democratic processes if the upazila polls are held before the national election. Likewise, the EC needs to fully share with the public as to what their compulsion is to hold the upazila polls before the national election. Their rationale has not been fully explained, except to say that the upazila election is overdue and they assume that left to itself an elected government might drag its feet on the issue like it did before. This is being presumptuous in the same way that the political parties think that the government might manipulate the upazila polls with the possibility of eventually influencing the outcome of the national election. This is a nonpartisan government in transit; so how can it possibly have such an agenda?
For all we know, the AL has proposed that the government declare schedules for both national election and upazila polls in that order, the latter following the former with a built-in guarantee for completion of the upazila polls under an elected government. This can be one of the options to be mooted in the EC's discussions with political parties.
The bottom line however is, we believe, that the upazila election should be held without further delay and that way everybody will stand to gain from the outcome.
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