Special Correspondent :The third phase election to 620 Union Parishads (UPs) opens today in some districts amidst fear of widespread violence and rigging without enhanced security measures to hold the polls peacefully. Field reports said supporters of the ruling party-backed chairmen and councillor candidates are holding total control of the UPs that are going for election today like in the two previous occasions to win the polls and establish their control in local politics. Awami League won over 80 percent UPs during last two elections. In the face of such unruly situation in which at least 38 persons were killed in election violence during the two previous phases, in addition to several hundreds injured and property gutted, Awami League on Thursday has asked the EC to be tough in dealing with violence and irregularities during the next phases of UP elections. A party delegation met the Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed on Thursday and conveyed him a message of the Prime Minister to make the polls free and fair. The leader of the team Mahbubul Alam Hanif told media that he has passed “a strong instruction of the Prime Minister who does not want to see any irregularity, fault and deviation in the elections.” To many observers, the Prime Minister’s advice to the Chief Election Commissioner is so hollow and the result of shallow advice of shallow advisers around her. The government candidates and others shall commit violence freely, and will shift the blame to the Election Commission cannot be the solution. The Election Commission’s inability to hold elections peacefully proves one thing and one thing only. Only under a caretaker government, not interested in the results of the elections, it is possible that the law enforcing agencies shall act impartially. The EC has been tasked to conduct the polls when the government has been tasked to provide the necessary peaceful environment. It is not the responsibility of the EC to fight violence and deal with unruly elements. Police and such other law enforcers remain very much under the control of the government. Let the government remain impartial and maintain peace during the polls. The polls officials should then ensure, once inside the polling station, that no problem exists for casting votes freely. It is quite unusual why the Awami League delegation advised the EC to be tough in dealing with the situation when the EC has no power to tackle the violence created by others. But question also arises as to why the EC is not telling the government that it can’t take responsibility of the election in violent situation that kills people.
