A question for the CEC and his collegues at the Election Commission
It is very critical for the Election Commission to think about the ways to make the next election a success. Here are some thoughts.
In a previous article, we have emphasized on the fact that the success of an election does not necessarily depend on what exactly happens on the day of the election, per se. There are many ways that an election can go wrong. However, there is a single litmus test if one wants to measure the success of an election. That test to measure success is whether the losing party accepts the defeat graciously once the election is over.
With that background, following is an important question for the CEC to ponder:
Keeping the litmus test we described here, do you think the success of the election solely depend on the political parties? In other words, do you think there is enough mechanism in place that ensures the acceptance of the result of an election?
While Election Commission is busy with many things, many good things, the commission has to think seriously about this particular issue. If the CEC thinks that its upto the defeated party whether they accept the election result or not, then we are in trouble!!
One of the main job of the election commission is to build enough infrastructure which will ensure the acceptance of the election result. Some of those infrastructure might be easy and quick to build, some others might be costly and time-consuming to build. CEC will have to identify those infrastructure, select which ones to build now, and which ones to build later.
Off course, at the end of the day, the attitude of defeated political parties are a very important thing that eventually will influence the decision whether to accept graciously or not. But it is the job of the Election Commission to ensure that there are enough infrastructures (soft and hard both types of infrastructures) to reduce the dependency on the attitude of the defeated politicians. They can not control the attitude of those politicians. They can wish for it, which would make their job easy. But they have to assume under the assumption that they will have to work within the most unfriendly scenario. It is always a good thing to design a system assuming worst case scenario.
Let us take an example. Think about the 1991 Election which was held under the Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed's caretaker government. Certainly the election might have many deficiency from the ideal case scenario, however, it was probably one of the best election which was held under a very favourable political environment. However, we all know what happened after the election result was published. The defeated party showed one of worst example of sour loser. There could be many debates about the reasons behind this - from attitude of the leadership to the infrastructure that the then Election Commission and the overall system could provide. Among these reasons, there are certainly many in which the EC do not have a direct control. However, there are many others in which EC could have meaningful control or influence or they could act as a facilitator.
So, let us take a deeper look.
It would be useful to look at the problem in the steps - whatever happens before, during and after the election day.
1. What could be improved that relates to "before the election day"?
2. What could be improved that relates to "the election day"?
3. What could be improved that relates to "after the election day"?
So far, it seems you and your team is focusing on the streamlining things to provide a sound infrastructure on the election day. However, that is not enough. Let us discuss step by step:
1. Before election day
There are some of the things that are being done - for example, delimitation, rules to provide a sound policy for campaigning, etc. But one thing so far absent is the opinion polls. Organizations focused on opinion polls of likely voters gives the politicians a sound and scientific idea about likely outcome. If one considers the huge number of organizations that are interested in observing the election proceedings on the election day, the number of organizations doing opinion polls is few, if not none. Some of the energy of the election monitoring organizations should be diverted to opinion polls. There are auxiliary things, such as whether there should be posters, how to regulate the election processions, and overall campaign - all these should be based on reality. For example, if you want to ban posters (which would be a very good thing), just do not ban it. Let the other stakeholders start a debate/dialogue why the ban is necessary. For example, with the issue of posters, the homeowners, environmental orgnaizations, businesses, city corporations, local bodies, etc might be interested in this ban. Enable them to start the process. Also, the printing press businessman might be opposed to the idea. Let them also talk about their interest. Eventually, you have to make a decision for public interest. But that decision should come as a result of a public debate. Similar approaches should be taken for other campaign process. One important thing will be how the candidates support their campaign financially. How much of their own money (if any), how much of the state money (if any) and how much of the money from the supporters (if any). Also, will there be limit on the donation of the supporters? Can a supporter give money to a candidate annonymously? Can a organization give money to a candidate? Many things are there that has to be decided.
2. On the election day
Your team is already trying to do all the things. However, one thing that is very important is nothing will be enough to have a good election, unless you have been able to ensure a candidate list void of people who wants to buy vote. If there are candidate who is willing to spend money to buy votes illegally, the system will be broken to create trouble for you. So, please, make sure that you do all possible things to ensure that unwanted candidates do not compete. But be objective in doing so.
3. After the election day
This is very critical. Even though this is what is most important to ensure the acceptance of defeat by the losing party, it seems, you have not focused on this part, so far. Or at least, it seems that way. Let us make it clear. There will be interested people who like to accuse 'karchupi' in election. You have to make sure that if one talks about karchupi, you have the legal infrastructure that would enable all the parties to submit formal complain. There has to be clear rules about how to tackle those complains. The rules should be time-bound. If there is no formal complain, an understanding should be there that candidates will formally accept the defeat. Parties should have an understanding that if they are not ready to accept defeat, they will file complain. The procedure and process through which the election day complains are handled should be clear to the political parties.
Bottomline: The individual candidates who will lose, will be encouraged to do one of the two things:
He or she accepts the defeat formally through press breifing.
or
He or she files formal complains to the competent authority which will then start a resolution process.
There should not be any room for ambiguity.
If you thought some of the ideas are worth of your reading time, please forward it to others. If you have an ear to the columinsts in regular traditional media, please forward it to them. If you have an ear to the journalists and news editors of the electronic media, discuss it with them. Hope they would look at the suggestions and give due diligence.
Thanks for your time,
Innovation Line
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Note: This is a freelance column, published mainly in different internet based forums. This column is open for contribution by the members of new generation, sometimes referred to as Gen 71. If you identify yourself as someone from that age-group and want to contribute to this column, please feel free to contact. Thanks to the group moderator for publishing the article.
Dear readers, also, if you thought the article was important enough so it should come under attention of the ACC, please forward the message to them. Email address for the EC: ecs@bol-online.com or you can use this link: http://www.ecs.gov.bd/contact.php3
The more of you forward it to them, the less will be the need to go back to street agitation. Use ICT to practice democracy.
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