Staff Reporter :
Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda on Thursday reiterated that Bangladesh Nationalist Party founder Ziaur Rahman restored multi-party democracy in the country.
The Chief Election Commissioner said, “I own the remarks which I had delivered about Ziaur Rahman during the Election Commission hosted pre-polls talks with the party.”
“Yes I own my statement. I said it based on facts. I did not say Zia introduced multi-party democracy. Rather I said that Zia restored multi-party democracy,” he said.
The CEC met the media to share the Election Commission’s three-month series of talks with political parties and other stakeholders over the next national election. Elaborating the statement, the CEC said, “Democracy existed before 1975, but not between 1975 and 1977. Ziaur Rahman brought back multiparty democracy. He held elections, in which the Awami League participated, which reinstated multiparty democracy in the country.”
Nurul Huda said, Election Commission will decide afterward whether to deploy army doing the next general elections.
“Election Commission has the jurisdiction to deploy army during polls,” he said.
In the existing law, it is possible to deploy army within the purview of the incumbent Election Commission law, the CEC said. During the polls talks with the EC, most political parties wanted the deployment of the army before the next general elections. However, it is not that all the parties agree on what sort of power the army should have during the elections which is likely to be held in December 2018. Some favour deployment with magistracy power, while few others want Army as a strike force to meet the emergency.
The EC had also talked to civil society members, editors, and senior journalists about the elections. Most civil society members spoke of restoring the “No Vote” system and ensuring a level-playing field for all political parties.
On October 15, Huda went on to praise the former military ruler during a discussion with the BNP. His remarks evoked sharp reactions from the ruling party stalwarts.
Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader said that they had sought the CEC’s explanation during their October 18 talks with the Commission. He, however, did not say how Huda responded to. Asked whether Awami League asked for any explanations in this regard, he said he did not explain anything to the ruling party and they probably got the explanation from his speech during the electoral talks with the AL party leaders.
