Staff Reporter :
The election system in the country has gone under question for long. But some fair elections were witnessed in the country in the last decade in the professional bodies polls only.
The election of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), one of the largest professional bodies of the country, was always praiseworthy. Mutual respect was the main spirit of the SCBA members, in spite of belonging different political ideologies. But the SCBA seems to have failed to save that tradition.
Although the counting of votes in the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) election for the 2022-23 sessions were completed within 24 hours, the announcement of the result has been
pending for more than two weeks as an uneasy situation has been brewing over Secretary post. No one knows when the result could be announced. In the meantime, the running committee completed its calendar year on March 31.
However, as per the SCBA constitution the incumbent committee will continue their functions till the next Annual General Meeting (AGM), said incumbent Secretary Barrister Ruhul Quddus Kazal.
The failure to declare the election results in more than two weeks has been described by the lawyers as unprecedented in the history of the Supreme Court Bar Association. They also want a quick end to this embarrassing situation.
It is learnt that the present executive committee of the bar had a long meeting on Wednesday (March 30) regarding the existing situation. The meeting decided that the former President and Secretaries of the bar would meet within the next seven days.
That meeting will put an end to the ongoing controversial situation over the announcement of results, the SCBA leaders hoped.
The work of issuing letters to the former President and Secretaries of the Supreme Court Bar Association started from March 31 and the current two Vice Presidents of the bar are coordinating the issues.
Voting in two-day polls to elect the office bearers for the 2022-2023 sessions of the Supreme Court Bar Association were held on March 15 and 16. Then the counting of votes ended at midnight on March 17.
As incumbent Secretary Barrister Ruhul Quddus Kazal was leading during the end of counting the votes, supporters of his rival Md Abdun Nur Dulal locked in a chaos on early hours of March 18.
Meanwhile, before the announcement of the final result, Advocate AY Mashiuzzaman, Convener of the election sub-committee, resigned from his post alleging misconduct on the part of the supporters of Awami League-backed Secretary candidate Md Abdun Nur Dulal. As a result, the announcement of election result could not be possible.
Supporters of Mr Abdun Nur Dulal demanded for a recounting of the votes for the post of Secretary at the end of the counting. But without disposing of the petition filed by the supporters of Abdun Nur Dulal, the Convener of the sub-committee resigned.
Advocate AY Mashiuzzaman said, “Although I mentioned medical grounds in the resignation letter, actually I have been humiliated. For many years I have been conducting the election of the Supreme Court Bar Association. But I have never seen such dirtiness in SCBA. I wanted to bring the election system of the SCBA into a form, but I saw that it was not happening.”
He also said, “The behavior of the supporters of the Secretary candidate of the Awami League-backed panel is unexpected. Senior lawyers of the panel were also present at that time and they didn’t take any step to stop their supporters.”
Sources said, main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party- backed lawyers’ blue panel bagged majority of the posts, including the Secretary, in the Supreme Court Bar Association election. Ruling Awami League-backed white panel secured six posts, including the President.
