EC suspends Gaibandha-5 by-polls as it ‘goes out of control’

Voters being forced to cast votes for candidates, disconnected CCTV cameras and more than one person entering the ballot booths were among a slew of "rampant irregularities", which led to the suspension of the by-polls to the Gaibandha-5 constituency on Wednesday.
 
In the first move of its kind seen in Bangladesh's democratic history, the Election Commission (EC) suspended voting around four hours after it began at 8:00am as the environment at polling centres "went out of control" amid allegations of vote rigging using the hotly debated electronic voting machines (EVMs).

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal made the announcement at a press conference saying the voting was not being carried out in an orderly fashion.

"We could all see that the situation had gone out of control. You [the journalists] could see for yourself that there were people repeatedly coming in and out of polling booths," Awal told reporters.

Saying that it was too early to determine what had happened, Awal, however, defended the use of EVMs.

"I do not see any fault with the EVMs. This happened because of how people behaved." 

The unprecedented step was greeted with mixed reaction by different political parties.

The ruling Awami League questioned how the CEC could make such a decision "sitting in Dhaka", while the BNP termed the entire episode a "ploy" to earn the Commission the trust of the people.

Speaking to The Business Standard, AL Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif said, " We are in constant contact with the leaders and workers there. There was no hassle, conflict or problem. No one complained. The voting was peaceful. But I don't know what the commissioners sitting in Dhaka saw on the CCTV cameras to stop the voting."

He said the EC would have to clarify their decision, after which the party will decide what steps to take.

CEC Awal during Wednesday's conference had stressed that the Commission had constitutional authority to call off an election when needed as granted by Section 91 of The Representation of the People Order, 1972.

The section says the EC can stop polls at any polling station or the entire constituency at any stage if "it is convinced that it shall not be able to ensure the conduct of the election justly, fairly and in accordance with law due to malpractices, including coercion, intimidation and pressures, prevailing at the election."

Local government expert Tofail Ahnmed said the law has empowered the EC with stopping elections, but no Commission had exercised it before. 

Congratulating the EC on its stance, he said there was still much left to do.

"Those who forced the election to stop due to their irregularities should be brought to book after investigation. This should be brought up before the government and if it doesn't do anything, the EC can say the government is not cooperating."

Highlighting the extent of the violations during yesterday's polls, CEC Awal said there were reports of many people milling about dressed in matching t-shirts sporting particular electoral symbols, which was another infraction of the electoral code of conduct. 

Answering a query on whether the violators were stealing votes, he said, "Those people are dacoits. They are rogues. Those who do not obey the law, we can call them robbers, rogues. We all have to respect the law. The Election Commission cannot sit here and gift people a beautiful election." 

Although the EC's decision was roundly praised, the BNP - which was among four parties to boycott the by-polls - said there could be other reasons for it aside from ensuring free and fair voting.

Saying it was natural for voting to be stopped as this government could not ensure a fair election, the party's Standing Committee Member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain added, "Today's suspension is a ploy to get everyone to trust them. Probably the Awami League candidate was losing so the election was stopped."

Acknowledging that many were commending the EC's boldness, he said this was all part of their strategy.

"Whatever they do, we will stand firm in our demands. We will not go to any election under this government."

As it happened

Irregularities began to surface as soon the by-polls to Gaibandha-5 began.

As people queued up, election commissioners watched the proceeding on live feed through closed-circuit television cameras set up in all the voting centres across two upazilas - Saghata and Fulchhari upazila.

"From the very start, we saw more than one person entering the voting booths. Voters were helped or coerced to vote, which was very obvious. Some female agents were wearing the same type of sari decorated with party symbols, which went against the code of conduct," CEC Awal said.  

"I myself suspended the polls in 43 centres before 12:30 pm – 16 in the second phase, 12 in the third phase, and lastly nine others in the fourth phase.

"We noticed that the CCTV cameras were disconnected in many centres, due to which we could not collect data from those places." 

A returning officer also had to close the polls of a centre, he informed.

"We continued to discuss and analyse the matter and realised that closing polls in a few centres would not have any fruitful outcome. It seemed to us that the polling had gone out of control. In our opinion, fair elections were not possible, so we decided to suspend it."

The CEC said the committee will decide the next course of action based on the rules. 

Although a tentative date to retake the polls has not been announced, EC Joint Secretary Farhad Ahmed Khan said it is mandatory to hold polls within 90 days from the date of declaration of a vacancy.

He also said anyone could take part in the polls, even those who had earlier boycotted it.

All four opposition candidates, including the Jatiya Party, had announced their boycott of the polls alleging vote fraud at a joint press conference right before voting began on Wednesday. 

EC wins rare praise

Although there had been much debate about the EC, its impartiality and its ability to work independently, the Commission won some rare praise yesterday.

Jatiya Party presidium member Shameem Haider Patwary said the EC's decision was tough to make, but it was a landmark one which would help foster confidence in the people about the elections and the EVMs.

"The EC's directives were not followed properly at the field level. We complained to the administration and the police about those, but they could not do anything. Maybe they were a little helpless. We fully support the decision taken by the Commission to stop the election," he said, adding it would send a message that no wrongdoing would be allowed. 

Former election commissioner Brigadier General Sakhawat Hossain also expressed his support for the EC's step, but said it must now find and punish those who had committed the irregularities.

"Since taking responsibility, the Commission has said that it would work impartially to organise a free and fair election. After today, I hope they can really do it."

He said all national elections should be dealt with in this way to gradually build the confidence of the political parties.

Another former election commissioner Shah Nawaz said, "The Commission has the legal right to make that decision.  If the election gets out of control and there are irregularities and problems, it should be closed. They did the right thing. This Commission showed courage and made history by being the first to take this step." 

On whether it would create confidence in the political parties about the EC, he said, "Confidence never comes with one incident. Political parties will gain confidence if such actions are taken whenever necessary." 

Mohammad Ibne Mizan, additional superintendent of police in Gaibandha, said law enforcers played a good role during the polls.

"There was no violence or any untoward incident. We kept the situation under control." 

Voting in the by-polls to Gaibandha-5 was undertaken after the constituency fell vacant following the death of deputy speaker Fazle Rabbi Miah.

It has some 339,434 voters from 17 unions.