“Remote controlling the elections” will lead to disastrous consequences, says Election Commissioner Mahbub Talukdar.
“The Upazila Councils as local government have no autonomy,” he said on Sunday (Mar 31) while reading from a written statement in front of the media after the fourth phase of the Upazila polls ended.
“The Upazila Councils must be made independent from the MPs. Otherwise it’ll never be possible for the election to be free, fair and error-free,” he added.
He said that many think that the Commission has become more alert during the Upazila polls, and asked, “After how long did it happen? Voting centres were closed and strict measures were taken against the police and officials related to the polls in case of irregularities. Why wasn’t it done during the national polls?”
Saying that it isn’t right to blame the voters for the polls not being participatory he added, “Elections are no longer participatory due to lack of confidence [on the electoral process].
“It’s imperative to find out why we have failed to gain the confidence of voters.”
According to Talukdar, the Election Commission needs to self-asses the polls it has administered in the last two years and refrain from making the same mistakes.
The nation is slowly moving towards a chasm as the people are no more interested in exercising their franchises, he said.
Describing elections as the first step to installing democracy, the election commissioner said citizens’ reluctance to vote was equivalent of turning away from democracy.
“The political parties and politicians must turn their attention to the matter.”
Talukdar said that all the elections must be fully handed over to the Election Commission and the system must be reformed to ensure free, fair and neutral polling.