Writ in HC seeks Army role in voting process

A writ petition was filed with the High Court (HC) yesterday seeking its directives on the authorities concerned to engage the armed forces with the process of voting, counting of votes and publication of election results. Supreme Court (SC) advocate Eunus Ali Akond submitted the petition with the related branch of the HC yesterday morning. The vacation bench of Justice JBM Hasan is likely to hold hearing on the petition today.

The petition also prayed to the HC to issue a rule asking the Election Commission (EC) and the government to explain why the commission’s failure to hold the 11th parliamentary election by engaging its own staff should not be declared illegal.

In the petition, Akond said the EC was supposed to run the voting process with its own staff, but the commission was using administrative officials for holding the process. This contradicts the Constitution, he added.

He also said that if the Army, Navy and Air Force personnel were deployed at all the polling booths and centres across the country, the election would be held in a free and fair manner.

The Army was involved in preparing a smart voter list before the 2008 election and so the election was held in a very free and fair manner, Akond told reporters after filing the petition.  As per the revised polls schedule, the 11th parliamentary election will be held on December 30. The ED had fixed November 28 as the deadline for filing nomination papers, December 2 as the last date for scrutiny and December 9 as the last date of withdrawal.  

The BNP and the Jatiya Oikyafront have long been demanding Army deployment for free and fair elections. EC secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed said that Army personnel would be deployed from Dec 24 across the country.

Writ in HC seeks Army role in voting process

A writ petition was filed with the High Court (HC) yesterday seeking its directives on the authorities concerned to engage the armed forces with the process of voting, counting of votes and publication of election results. Supreme Court (SC) advocate Eunus Ali Akond submitted the petition with the related branch of the HC yesterday morning. The vacation bench of Justice JBM Hasan is likely to hold hearing on the petition today. The petition also prayed to the HC to issue a rule asking the Election Commission (EC) and the government to explain why the commissions failure to hold the 11th parliamentary election by engaging its own staff should not be declared illegal. In the petition, Akond said the EC was supposed to run the voting process with its own staff, but the commission was using administrative officials for holding the process. This contradicts the Constitution, he added. He also said that if the Army, Navy and Air Force personnel were deployed at all the polling booths and centres across the country, the election would be held in a free and fair manner. The Army was involved in preparing a smart voter list before the 2008 election and so the election was held in a very free and fair manner, Akond told reporters after filing the petition. As per the revised polls schedule, the 11th parliamentary election will be held on December 30. The ED had fixed November 28 as the deadline for filing nomination papers, December 2 as the last date for scrutiny and December 9 as the last date of withdrawal. The BNP and the Jatiya Oikyafront have long been demanding Army deployment for free and fair elections. EC secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed said that Army personnel would be deployed from Dec 24 across the country.