City corporation election and Election Commission

Media reports indicate that the Election Commission has again failed to play its due role as the ruling party activists seized most of the polling centres and cast votes in favour of their party candidates. Many voters complained that when they went to their polling centres they found that their votes were already cast. Even before noon of the voting day it was quite evident that it was nothing but a stage managed election and that is why, the EC did not want to deploy the army at the polling centres.

April 28 was another sad day for our democracy when the voting rights of the people were trampled nakedly.  The election has proved once again that no fair election is possible in our country under a party government and so we must have a caretaker system to oversee elections and ensure the voting rights of the people. The ruling party has failed to ensure the voting rights of the people and it is a political defeat for them which will hurt them in the long run.

The people of our country never forgave those who snatched away their voting rights. The just concluded city elections have weakened our democratic system and dragged us back into the past when democracy was limited to text books only.

Masud rana

Dhanmondi, Dhaka.