With so much chattering over the election commission’s impartiality and the fake voters in the list, I think it is time now to look back and see step by step why people are questioning the impartiality of the election commission and also see the possible impact of going into this election with the existing voter list. Those of you who have just started paying attention to this crisis, here is a primer on what happened with the voter list. The goal of this exercise to lay out the facts, identify those who are still supporting this commission actively or passively and determine the next steps for us, the citizens, and the advisory council.

September 2003: EU expresses concern over the voter List. It said that the number of 7.48 crore voters is too high in a population of 13 crore. It argued that 55 per cent of Bangladeshis are aged over 15 years. So, even if the age to be eligible as a voter is reduced to 15 years, the maximum number of voters cannot be more than 7.15 crore.

August 2005: CEC unilaterally decides to do a fresh voter list amid objection from the opposition.

December 12th, 2005 Awami League files for staying of creating a new voter list and instead asks for updating of the previous
voter role. From 1982 - 95 voter list was updated based on the previous list. No new list was created.

Jan 4th, 2006 High Court stays creation of the new voter list.

Jan 8th: CEC Aziz decides to appeal and move on with creating the new voter list amid objection from the other two commissioners

Jan 15th: CEC claims sickness and refuses to meet the other two commissioners. He would have been overruled in the decision to move ahead to create the new list by the majority.

Jan 22nd: Govt appoints two more commissioners known for their loyality towards it as commissioners making the number of commissioners 5.

Jan 25th: Commission meets and CEC expectedly gets majority with the help of the two new commissioners in deciding to carry on with creating the new voter list in spite court objection.

May 3rd: Draft voter list published amid accusations of irregularity in electronic and print media. Draft list shows voters have grown by a whopping 22 percent contradicting the official statistics of our projected voter growth as per figures of 2001 census report. Based on 2001 census (the number of 13+ years old people), if there is no death and if every single elligible voter is listed, then the maximum number of voter that can be 8.02cr. The new list shows
the number to be 9.13 crore. In fact, it should be less than the 8.02 crore number as at least 10 lakh people in the age group died in this five years. Moreover, if the standard calculation that at least 5 per cent voters do not get listed for various reasons is factored in, then another 40 lakh would reduce. This means the actual number of voters should be around 7.5 crore.
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May 4th: Stories after stories came out about fake voters, voters from non-existent villages, a single house having nearly 100 voters while whole villages having less than 10. Stranded Pakistanis who refuse to be voters having their names included and Rohingas refugees being made voters. Prominent persons including sitting MPs being excluded from voter list.
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May 12th: After sample analysis of 20 districts, gaping hole in the list is found. There were more voters (often by more than 15%) listed than possible.
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May 19th: Even BNP minister Moudud Ahmed alleges irregularities in his home constituency.
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May 20th: EC says such anomalies are not out of ordinary. No effective ways to correct these errors.

May 23rd: After nearly 100 crore taka was spent on creating the new voter list, Supreme Court asks the EC to update the last voter list nullifying the newly created voter List.
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May 25: Major newspapers ask for CEC’s resignation for incompetence and for wasting crores of tax payers’ money on personal whim.
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July 21st: The existing voter list (used in the last election) starts to get updated after confusion over how to update the list. The commission only agreed to go door to door for the updating, the traditional way, after heavy pressure from the civil society and media.

July 31st: The existing voter list (used in the previous election) starts to get updated by the election commission.

September 7th: Draft Updated list gets published amid another shocker. The number of voters in the updated voter list has now reached 9,30,82,499. The existing electoral roll had 7.64 crore voters after inclusion of the names of new voters for different local government bodies’ elections in the last five years. The BBS report shows the number of people aged 18 years and above–the age for a person to be eligible for voting–should be maximum 8.02 crore if no deaths occur during the last five years and every eligible person is listed. 1.28cr voters unaccounted for.

In the capital, the percentage of rise in the number of voters is even more astounding. The percentage of fresh registration in Cantonment area is 77.83, in Motijheel 74.26, Pallabi 73.96, Dhanmondi 72.66, Mirpur 71.92, and Uttara 68.96. The Kotwali area, however, witnessed only 28.52 per cent rise while other areas witnessed 45-61 per cent rise.

Commission secretary admits error in the process - “It is my honest confession–the task for updating the voter list was not done the way it should have been…I have doubts over the process of deleting names from the existing voter list.”
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September 11th: NDI leader Tom Daschle was deeply concerned that the new voters’ list runs over 93 million, out of a
population of about 140 million, a size that was “substantially inconsistent with the 2001 census data. “A voters’ list containing two thirds of the population strains credibility, their report said. The report questioned the competence of the CEC. It said:
The delegation was deeply concerned to hear from a broad cross-section of parties, civil society, media and independent observers of a widespread lack of confidence in the Election Commission and, specifically, the Chief Election Commissioner. When the delegates raised the issue with the Commissioner, he did not acknowledge that a problem existed and later reported to the media that the delegation had been misinformed. The delegation has identified a perception of incompetence and bias as a serious problem that requires being addressed.

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Nov 11th: Election secretary says there is not enough time to fix the voter list. We go into the election with with more than 1.3 crores of names (close to 15% of the total voters) unaccounted for in this list.

Nov 17th: European Parliament calls for the reconstituting the Election Commission for the loss of confidence of public.

In 2001, the BNP won 26 seats with a margin of less then 5%, 41 with less then 10% and another 41 with less then 15%. That means a total of 108 seats are separated by a vote swing of 8%. Now we have a voter list with as much as 15% of fake or unaccounted voters. You be the judge on how significant the role of the voter list the commission is.

Throughout the process described above, there is clear evidence of bias by the election commission towards the then ruling party and incompetence and lack of transparency in the whole process of creating the voter list and in addressing the complaints. There is not a single independent organization which has expressed confidence in the ability of the current commission to hold a credible election. In the OP-Ed piece in Prothom Alo on Sunday (Nov 18), Dr. Badiul Alam Majumdar of Shujan has clearly articulated the steps and charges on how Supreme Judicial Council can be called to remove the election commissioners. Similarly, there is provision to neutralise the current commissioners by giving them forced leave of absence. So there are ways in the constitution to get around the problem. However, the chief advisor has not even in principal accepted that these commissioners are obstacles to a fair election. That is where Mr. Iajuddin’s charade of neutrality and objectivity breaks down. He is hiding behind the constitution without even expressly calling for the commissioner Aziz’s resignation. The question now is whether the rest of the advisers, who are working day and night on this thankless job sincerely, would take the wrath of the nation on behalf of Mr. Iajuddin? It has been established by several constitutional experts now that the chief adviser is one among many equals and the advisers hold exactly the same authority as the chief adviser. It is imperative now that the other advisers assert themselves and look for alternative options of taking decisions by majority in the council. They stand at a historical cross road of the nation. We looked at Mr. Iajuddin Ahmed with a lot of hope that he would serve the country rather than his benefactors. Regrettably, he has decided to serve his benefactors putting out whole country in the brink of disaster. It is now time for the rest of the advisers to step up to the plate and govern by majority in the council. Very few people can rise up to the challenge of time. With the backing from the rest of the country, I earnestly hope that they will be able to do the same.

In the meantime, what are we, the citizens, supposed to do? While it is one of the lowest points for our nation, it is also an opportunity for us to speak up, unite and open up the channel for the much needed people’s voice in our politics. Whether we are the richest business person or the poorest Rickshaw wallah, we are all getting hit with this crisis. Perhaps this illustrates how important it is for us to fix the politics. As a first step, we all now have to take a stand for Bangladesh. Say yes to accountibility by ensuring a clean election. Say no to the politics of violence and choking people with blockade. We have to take back Bangladesh from this madness - all of us together. Let’s start by wearing a black badge and start putting up a black flag in our houses. There was a gathering of such indpendent people on Saturday in front of Jadughar led by writer Anisul Huq. We need more self starter initiatives like this. If we don’t speak for ourselves, as we have sadly but surely now have realised, there is no one to speak for US, the regular Bangladeshis.