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Says outgoing Election Commissioner Mahbub
There is no democracy in the country, and the polls here do not reflect the will of the masses, Election Commissioner Mahbub Talukdar said yesterday, on his last day in office.
He also said the outgoing Election Commission rarely took any action against those involved in polls irregularities, including forgery, and bias.
“The [recent] Union Parishad elections have showed us there is no democracy … the corpse of democracy is lying. Who will shoulder the responsibility for burying it?” he asked while addressing a press conference at the EC.
“Such an anarchy across the country, in the name of elections, was never desired. The elections have given conflicts a permanent position at the grassroots level. The question of whether you can call it an election when candidates get elected unopposed is also there,” he said.
He also said it is extremely important that the will of the masses is reflected in polls. “From Union Parishad polls to parliamentary elections, the reflection of the masses is absent everywhere.
“The use of money has especially been observed in those elections. Politics is slowly going into the hands of the businesspeople. My question is will lawmakers start doing business with laws in future?”
Mahbub further said people’s voting rights and human rights are two sides of the same coin. “It is absurd to talk about human rights in Bangladesh. There are no human rights, there is no human dignity, these cannot exist without democracy.
“At present, development is being given all the priorities. Lawmakers are more interested in development than in legislation. But development is never an alternative to democracy.”
Asked why he did not participate in an EC press conference addressed by the outgoing chief election commissioner KM Nurul Huda and two other commissioners, Mahbub said, “I didn’t join it because I may not be able to speak there freely.”
“I don’t speak in the tone of the BNP. I actually don’t know what that tone is,” he said, ignoring an allegation.
“I am one of the five [EC commissioners]. There were instances where I was not allowed to speak in [commission] meetings. I lost my battle as I was a minority among them,” he also said.
