Announcing polls schedule post-haste

  THE CEC has surprised the nation on Monday by announcing the schedule for the 10th Jatiya Sangsad election in undue haste. This action flies in the face of his previous day's observation that he was waiting for a political reconciliation among the major political stakeholders. What then happened in the next 24 hours that compelled him to say in his address to the nation that he had no more time in hand to wait? It boggles the mind.
The CEC's argument for the haste hardly stands to reason. Why did he leave a time-span of nearly three weeks between the declared date of election on January 5, 2014 and the last day of the 90 days' stipulation to hold the election, which ends on January 24? Had he used discretion, he would have allowed a reasonable length of time to see that the ruling AL and the main opposition BNP come to an understanding before declaring the election schedule.
While we understand his compulsions to keep to a time-table and a few days in hand, at this stage considerations of possible political imperatives should have weighed in more with him than they have. For it is not the polls date alone, the entire schedule from the date of submitting the nomination papers, their scrutiny and withdrawal cannot be said to have been properly thought through with enough breathing space in between. Looking at EC's different steps from amendment to the RPO till date, it appears the statutory body has been driven more by someone else's diktat than discharging its constitutional obligations.