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News Analysis

Uphill task ahead

Shakhawat Liton
Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad is a fortunate man. He takes charge of an Election Commission (EC) now resting on a record of many encouraging successes. The more important thing is that the new EC under his leadership could see people's overwhelming confidence restored in it.
His predecessor ATM Shamsul Huda was the man under whose leadership the EC has scaled new heights, through setting new standards. So, Rakibuddin may not need to expend much effort or spend much time, as Huda did, to bring back people's confidence in the EC. But people's expectations now run very high and it was the immediate past EC under the leadership of Huda which gave rise to such expectations.
Rakibuddin and his team will need to work hard to live up to people's high expectations and accomplish many Herculean tasks for the sake of a continuation of electoral reforms initiated and carried out successfully by his predecessor over the last five years.
His journey may be tortuous, particularly from a political perspective. All prevailing signals in the political landscape suggest his leadership may face strong criticism and opposition from the BNP-led political parties. The BNP did not take time to reject outright the appointment of the new CEC and four election commissioners. The party's acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday announced that the BNP would not contest the next parliamentary polls under the newly formed EC.
Some senior BNP leaders have been questioning the legality of the search committee formed by the president to recommend names
to him for appointment as CEC and election commissioners. And they have also been saying that they will not accept the formation of the new EC before a resolution of the caretaker government issue. It was thus a given that the main opposi-tion would reject the appointment of the new CEC and other election commissioners.
Therefore, from a political perspective, Rakibuddin is not as lucky as his predecessor. No major political parties opposed Huda's appointment as CEC by the Fakhruddin Ahmed-led emergency regime. In fact, politics was banned during Huda's appointment. When the ban on indoor politics was lifted on a limited scale at the end of2007, the political parties cooperated with the EC in the task of bringing about electoral reforms and doing other preparatory work for the holding of the stalled ninth
parliamentary polls.
Moreover, the caretaker government backed by the army extended all-out support to the EC led by Huda to accomplish his mission. Huda thus had almost a smooth political landscape to carry out some gigantic tasks, including preparation of a voter list with photographs and introduction of political parties' registration with the EC through sweeping electoral reforms. And the electoral reforms brought about at the time also gave birth to a new electioneering culture in the country.
Rakibuddin and his team will of course work in a different political atmosphere.
Although democratic, the political landscape is so bitterly divided that good work on the part of the new EC may not get appreciated by the opposition while the ruling party may extend its blind support to the EC.
In the past, political parties' opposition had forced Abu Hena to resign as CEC although under his leadership the EC successfully held the June 12,1996 parliamentary polls following the constitutional introduction of the caretaker government system. Before Hena was appointed, his predecessor Justice Sadek was mired in deep controversy over his role in the February 15,1996 farcical parliamentary polls.
Another CEC, MA Syed, although he had been appointed by the then AL-led government in 2000, faced the ire of the AL after its debacle in the 2001 parliamentary polls. Syed's successor, Justice MA Aziz, appointed as CEC by the BNP-led government in 2005, was caught in political controversy as his appointment had not been accepted by then AL-led opposition parties. And finally, the EC under his leadership turned controversy over its whimsical and farcical activities.
People lost their confidence in the EC. And it was immediate past CEC Huda who led the EC into bringing back people who had confidence in it.
Rakibuddin and the other election commissioners will be sworn in soon and join their offices. The 10th parliamentary polls will be held under the newly formed EC at the beginning of 2014. Before that it will face an acid test in conducting polls to a bifurcated Dhaka City Corporation any time before next May. Although nonpartisan in nature, the DCC polls will convey some signals whether the BNP will change its current stance by asking its leaders to join the polls under the new EC.
In brief, it can be said that in the wake of the prevailing political situation, the fate of the newly formed EC and ongoing electoral reforms looks to be the similar.