Law isn't enough for EC independence : CEC

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Enacting law is not enough for the Election Commission Secretariat's independence rather goodwill of political parties as well as political governments is a prerequisite, Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda said Thursday, responding to politicians' critical observations.
He expects that the EC secretariat would become truly independent before the next election.
He also made it clear that they are the final arbiters in matters of elections at present as well, reports UNB.
Meanwhile, the CEC said they would request the government to lift the state of emergency countrywide from December since the local-body elections are to be held from March next year.
"Goodwill is the main factor here. Enacting law is a condition. Even the independent EC secretariat wouldn't have any authority if there wouldn't be the political government's goodwill since any government can keep it (the EC secretariat) dysfunctional if it wished," CEC Huda told the press on Thursday afternoon after holding an internal meeting throughout the morning.
Rejecting as "irrational" Awami League's comment that the EC is dependent, the CEC said the political leaders should make specific allegation instead of making sweeping criticism.
"The present EC secretariat is totally independent. The government has already given us a total of Tk 5.72 billion (Tk 572 crore). We can do whatever we want. We are not feeling dependent. However, we are expecting to be absolutely independent before next elections. But it is being delayed due to some reasons," he said.
Explaining the reasons, Huda said the matters should be examined as to how the independent EC would run in accordance with the Constitution and work with the Finance and Establishment Ministry and what would be the government's rules of business in this regard.
The CEC said it is the EC that had first said 18 months are required to hold elections and then the government spoke the same. The government would speak different if the EC had not been independent, he argued.
"Some proposals have also been made for appointing election commissioners since you saw the earlier commissioners here and in the Anti-corruption Commission also. A draft has been made on who could hold these constitutional posts," he added.
About AL leader Suranjit Sengupta's remark that the EC- sponsored dialogue with the political parties on electoral reforms would not succeed since the EC is not independent, CEC Huda asserted he does not take orders from anyone.
"I announced the election roadmap and I would work accordingly. And the political parties would sit for the dialogue in their own interest," he added.
Asked if the local elections are to start from January next as per the election roadmap, he replied in the negative.
"Updating would take place in January according to the rule of our voter list. The elections may start in March or April," he said.
The CEC further said that they would request the government in time to lift the state of emergency countrywide from December.
About the countrywide campaign for preparing the photo-voter-list plus national identity (NID) card, he said the campaign would start from November across the country.