Zabed Ali irks fellow commissioners

In an extremely unusual move, Election Commissioner Zabed Ali visited the Police Headquarters yesterday to discuss, as per official documents, security issues concerning the upcoming union parishad polls.

Talking to The Daily Star, other commissioners and officials of the Election Commission (EC) criticised the visit, saying it undermined the EC's dignity.

The four election commissioners and chief election commissioner (CEC) in the EC secretariat rank higher than the inspector general of police (IGP) as per the Warrant of Precedence.

As a constitutional body, the EC has the right to summon security officials to the EC secretariat to discuss any sort of security issue and the latter are bound to oblige, said EC officials.

The EC usually convenes a law and order meeting ahead of polls and places proposals over deployment of law enforcers. The home ministry further scrutinises the plans and takes the final decision.

If the EC feels that further discussions are required, it can again summon the security officials, said EC officials.  

Zabed ignored the rules and did not follow official procedures, said an election commissioner.

Another said the CEC and other commissioners had opposed Zabed's move but the latter did not pay any heed. "...it (the visit) is his personal decision," said one election commissioner.

An official at the police headquarters confirmed that Zabed held a meeting with IGP AKM Shahidul Hoque for around half an hour from around 4:00pm.

Zabed was also scheduled to visit the Border Guard Bangladesh, Bangladesh Ansar, Bangladesh Coast Guard and Rapid Action Battalion headquarters today and tomorrow.

The schedule was postponed yesterday and a new one will be designed later, said a staff at Zabed's office. Zabed was not available at his office and did not receive calls over the phone for comment.

Elections to 732 union parishads will be held on March 22 in the first phase and another 650 on March 31 in the second. Over 2,800 more will go to polls in four other phases till June.

Moreover, the EC may change the district election officer of Cox's Bazar over allegations of being involved with poll-related irregularities. The EC officials said the decision would be finalised within a day or two.