EC faces growing storm of complaints as election nears

Abu Jakir :

As the country moves closer to its 13th national parliamentary election, the Election Commission is finding itself under relentless political pressure, with delegations of major parties visiting the commission almost daily to lodge complaints over what they describe as bias, administrative failures and threats to a “level playing field.”

The latest escalation came on Sunday, when the Bangladesh Nationalist Party formally accused some Election Commission officials of working in favour of a particular political party and raised the issue directly with Chief Election Commissioner A M M Nasir Uddin.

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir went to the Election Building in Dhaka’s Agargaon on Sunday afternoon, the final day of appeals over nomination papers, accompanied by Nazrul Islam Khan, chairman of the party’s election steering committee.

After holding a nearly hour-long meeting with the CEC, Mirza Fakhrul told reporters that the party believed the commission was “in many cases behaving in a biased manner” and that these concerns had been conveyed in detail.

“We want the Election Commission to play a neutral role,” he said, adding that BNP had complained that certain officials were acting on behalf of a political group.

The meeting took place on a day when the area around the Election Commission complex had already been tense, as leaders and activists of Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal staged a protest sit-in outside the EC headquarters from late morning, accusing the commission of controversial and partisan decisions.

Hundreds of Chhatra Dal activists gathered in front of the EC complex around 11:00 am, blocking the road near police barricades and announcing that their sit-in would continue until late at night.

Law enforcement personnel were deployed at the main gate as senior student leaders addressed protesters.

Chhatra Dal central president Rakibul Islam Rakib and general secretary Nasir Uddin Nasir were present, along with activists from various educational institutions.

Speaking at the protest, Nasir Uddin Nasir said that as the election nears, “certain groups are trying to create unrest in the country,” which Chhatra Dal strongly condemns.

He said the sit-in was being held to highlight three issues that, in their view, have seriously undermined public confidence in the Election Commission.

The first relates to postal ballots for expatriate voters, which he said were introduced through “highly biased and questionable” decisions.

The controversy, he added, has created widespread doubts about the commission’s neutrality, prompting their demand that the EC immediately resolve disputes surrounding postal voting.

Second, he alleged that under pressure from a particular political group, the commission has taken reckless and short-sighted decisions instead of responsible ones, damaging the professionalism of the independent body.

The third issue concerns the student union election at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, where the EC reversed an earlier decision under political pressure, an action Chhatra Dal described as unprecedented.

Sunday’s protest unfolded amid intensifying debate over expatriate postal voting, introduced on a large scale for the first time in Bangladesh’s electoral history.

While the system was intended to enfranchise Bangladeshis living abroad, it has become one of the most contentious elements of the upcoming election.

The BNP has accused the authorities of presiding over, or failing to prevent, systematic manipulation of postal ballots.

Videos circulated widely on social media in recent days show groups of individuals handling large numbers of ballot envelopes in foreign locations, footage BNP leaders argue exposes serious breaches of electoral safeguards.

According to a report published by the Daily Ittefaq on December 21, 2025, more than 520,000 expatriate Bangladeshis have registered to vote by post.

Given the size of that electorate, analysts say postal ballots could play a decisive role in closely contested constituencies.

Beyond postal voting, several political parties — including Jamaat-e-Islami and the National Citizen Party — have accused the Election Commission of failing to ensure administrative neutrality, protect candidates, and maintain a level playing field.

Election officials say complaints are inevitable in any national poll. Akhtar Ahmed, senior secretary of the Election Commission Secretariat, has said allegations are common but stressed the need for specific claims so that action can be taken.

For civil society, the recurring scenes of protest outside the commission reflect deeper anxieties. Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of Shujan, said allegations against election authorities are nothing new, but warned that visible failures, including violence near the commission’s own gate, demand firm institutional responses.

With weeks remaining before polling day, the Election Commission is facing one of its most challenging periods, as it struggles to manage the electoral process under intense scrutiny — and to convince a sceptical political landscape that it can still act as a neutral arbiter of the country’s democracy.