Mahbub Talukdar: The man who dared to stand alone

Sketch: TBS

When global rights bodies such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International were condemning the violent campaign launched by the police targeting BNP leaders and their electioneering before the December 2018 parliamentary polls, here in Bangladesh one voice in the Election Commission was heard loud. He was alone but outspoken and fought for free and fair elections till the last day he was in office.

The man was none other than election commissioner Mahbub Talukdar, the lone ranger who dared to utter the truth and raise dissenting voices not once but on every occasion whenever he found things were not going by electoral laws and were destroying the level playing field for all candidates.

He was always cornered by Chief Election Commissioner Nurul Huda and three other election commissioners who together rejected almost all the proposals drafted by Mahbub Talukdar to ensure congenial atmosphere for holding free and fair elections.

They were the majority in the five member EC with 4:1 voting power which was a brute majority.

For his dissenting voice and repeated "notes of dissent" earned him the name of "dissenting election commissioner."

He was even accused of violating the oath of secrecy by his colleagues in the EC forgetting the fact that neither the CEC nor any election commissioner needed to take the oath of secrecy like the prime minister and ministers. The only oath a CEC and election commissioner needs to swear in is to "preserve, protect and defend the constitution."

The oath Mahbub Talukdar was sworn in as the election commissioner was to "preserve, protect and defend the constitution." He was obliged by the oath and tried to protect the electoral democracy from brutal attacks during the election.  

His role angered the then party in power Awami League and it tried to brand him as a proBNP man. His dissenting voices went against the Sheikh Hasina government's narrative that a congenial atmosphere was prevailing for free and fair elections.

Faced with a hostile situation in the EC and attacks by AL, he let it out that he might quit. But he soon buried the speculation and announced that "I will fight to the last."

The situation that was

After boycotting the January 2014 parliamentary election held under Hasina government following arbitrary cancellation of the non-partisan caretaker government in 2011, the BNP and some other opposition parties decided to join the December 2018 election keeping faith in the promise of then prime minister Hasina that her government would ensure congenial atmosphere for the polls to be held in free and fair manner.

But the situation on the ground changed quickly after the BNP and its allies stepped into the electoral arena to challenge Hasina's party in power.

Hasina's virulently partisan police administration that she built installing all-partisan men to every significant post from top to bottom, sided with her party in the electoral battle against the opposition camp.

Soon after the announcement of the election schedule, the police force appeared to be a party against the BNP and other opposition parties. Five years ago the same police force had helped Hasina to hold the one-sided election in 2014. Many police officials and civil servants were rewarded with good promotions and lucrative posting after the polls.

The December 2018 election came as another opportunity to demonstrate their allegiance to Hasina and they did the necessary machinations for her to win the polls crushing the opposition. They launched indiscriminate arrest of opposition men, refrained from taking actions against ruling party men who continued attacking opposition candidates during their electoral campaign with impunity. 

Two weeks before the election, on 13 December, Human Rights Watch, a New York based organisation that monitors political and civil rights across the world, said Bangladesh security forces have been arresting and intimidating opposition figures and threatening freedom of expression in advance of national elections.

It urged the United Nations, European Union, United States, India, China, and others to press the government of Hasina to create conditions conducive to a free and fair vote and to prevent campaign violence.

The same day Amnesty International in a report said human rights were at stake in Bangladesh with the country preparing to hold the elections shortly.
But the situation got worse.

Fighting alone against all odds

A week before the election, on 22 December, Human Rights Watch in another report alleged "a repressive political environment in Bangladesh ahead of the December 30, 2018 national elections is undermining the credibility of the process."

Amid the progressively deteriorating situation, election commissioner Mahbub Talukdar was just fighting alone in a battle against all odds.

After the announcement of the election schedule in November, he proposed to bring some changes in the police and civil administration to create a level playing field.

But the CEC and other commissioners rejected his proposal. He was told that any transfer after the announcement of the schedule would hamper the election process, writes Mahbub in his book "Nirbachannama" which was published in February 2023 five months after his death.

After a visit to Cox's Bazar, he proposed the transfer of Teknaf's OC Pradeep Kumar Das for his partisan stance. But his proposal was rejected by the CEC and other commissioners. He was told that it would be impossible to control drugs and yaba if OC Pradeep was transferred.

"There were sufficient reasons to transfer the police officer.  I felt saddened that being an election commissioner I don't have authority to transfer an OC. I had to digest it," writes Mahbub Talukdar.

''In an ironic twist, OC Pradeep along with his lieutenant ASI Liakat was arrested on charge of murdering Major (retd) Sinha on the night of 31 July, 2020," he writes. "After that murder incident, 1,367 police personnel were transferred from the district. I don't know if any incident of such a large-scale transfer happened at once before."

On 17 December in a note to the CEC, Mahbub Talukdar, also an ex-civil servant, expressed his concerns over the partisan role of police.

"The role of the police is continuously being questioned. In many places the opposition candidates cannot carry out campaigning. Their leaders and activists are being arrested on various excuses. The free and fair election is now "Sonar Harin" [a golden deer]," said Mahbub in the note to the CEC.

But CEC Nurul Huda from the outset claimed in public that level playing field prevailed for free and fair elections. He also claimed that police were not making any arrest without reason.
Notorious 'midnight election'

What Mahbub Talukdar warned in the middle of December came true at the end of December: Free fair election had become a "Golden Deer" as ruling party men aided by the law enforcement agencies stuffed ballot boxes the night before the election day. The event earned the notorious epithet of "midnight election."

Around four years later, a Japanese ambassador in Dhaka faced the wrath of the government by making comments on the "midnight election."

In November 2022, Japanese ambassador to Bangladesh ITO Naoki hoped major political parties would participate in the election which would be held in January 2024, saying that the ruling Awami-League (AL) government assured them of holding a free and fair election.

Replying to a newsman's query over the election in 2018, ITO Naoki said he heard that police officials stuffed ballot boxes at night before the voting [in last elections], adding that he never heard of any such incident happening in any other country.

His comments angered the government and resulted in his withdrawal by Japan from Dhaka.

Iwama Kiminori, who succeeded Ito Naoki as the Japanese ambassador to Dhaka, has declined to comment on the general election of Bangladesh saying it is the country's "internal affair".

"I don't know what my predecessor said. At this moment I would like to refrain from any comment on internal affairs," Kiminori said in May 2023.

During the Nurul Huda commission, the elections to other local government bodies such as city corporations and upazila parishads were also tarnished by anomalies.

Lastly, another one-sided parliamentary election was held in January this year. But this time none was there in the EC like Mahbub Talukdar who dared to raise dissenting voices warning in advance that the country was set to be deprived again of a free and fair election.

One against 291 

The day the Hasina government in parliament abolished the caretaker government system on 30 June 2011, there was another lone voice in the House against the constitutional amendment scrapping the system that ensured free and fair elections.

Against the "yes" votes of 291 ruling alliance lawmakers favouring the constitution amendment bill, only independent lawmaker Fazlul Azim voiced a loud "no".

Opposing the bill, he said "it would be suicidal and a historic mistake if the government approves the bill taking advantage of two-thirds majority. The whole nation might suffer for this."

The rest is history.

[Mahbub Talukdar, who served as election commissioner from 15 February, 2017 to 14 February 2022 passed away on 24 August 2022.]