Elections in Bangladesh: Role of the Election Commission

Abstract

Election is a very important and only method to establish a democratic government. In the absence of elections modern democracy loses its meaning spirit and substance. Election commission is an organization which arrange and maintains the election of a country. The main responsibility of the election commission is to make the election free and fair. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the role of the election commission ensuring free, fair and impartial election in the parliamentary elections in Bangladesh. The study aims to examine the existing laws relating to election in Bangladesh and to find out the ways of strengthening the electoral process to ensure free and fair election. The present study found that in Bangladesh the election commission has to depend mostly on the government. It does not have power to recruit and control its own staff. For budget it has to depend on the Ministry of Finance. As a result, the acceptability of the election commission has been reduced. Moreover, it is appeared that the current laws related to election in Bangladesh are not adequate and effective. As a result, at the time of voting the events like the hot altercation among the political parties, vote rigging, extortion of ballot papers and boxes, false voting, occupations of vote centres, intimidation, assaulting of the election officers, insufficient security, hindrances to the minorities in exercising their voting right, false counting are common practices but the election commission cannot take necessary steps in this regard. Lastly the study suggests that to improve the election system the independence of the election commission should be ensured and the existing laws, relating to elections should be amended. The study also suggests some other measures for improving the electoral system in Bangladesh.