EC's freedom confined to its electoral process: Mahbub Talukdar

Election Commissioner Mahbub Talukdar said that the freedom of Election Commission (EC) is confined to its own process.

He expressed this view at the inauguration of a two-day training of election officials on Wednesday morning in the city on the occasion of the upcoming Dhaka North and South City Corporation elections.

Mahbub Talukdar said, "I had to find out the answer to the question of why the election is not fair, neutral and acceptable. My experience is that the Election Commission is legally independent but the real case is that its freedom is confined to the electoral process."

He opined that reform to the electoral process would be necessary. If the election becomes a prerequisite for democracy, then the election would have to be free, fair and transparent in order to make the path of democracy smooth.

He also mentioned that illegally elected public representatives have no 'commitments' to the people or to democracy.

Referring to the use of EVMs in the Dhaka North and South City Corporation elections, Mahbub Talukdar said, EVMs are being used this time in both two city polls. There is much confusion over the using of EVMs.

Referring to fully voting by using EVMs in the two city elections in Dhaka as an 'acid test' to the Election Commission', he said, "If we can overcome this challenge, then it will be possible to use EVMs everywhere."

In this regard, Mahbub added, “If the voting in the EVM is questionable, then the election will be questionable. For this reason, there is no alternative to gaining the confidence of the voters by using EVMs carefully.

Noting that the experience of elections for Barisal, Gazipur and Khulna City corporations is not pleasant - he said, "I do not want to see the repetition of the last three city corporation elections in the upcoming Dhaka City Corporation elections."

He urged the election officials to follow the 'zero tolerance' policy to create equal opportunity for everyone in the elections.