The Election Commission (EC) is not monitoring the implementation progress of directives it issued to Returning Officers (RO) for a fair Narayanganj City Corporation polls, slated for December 22.

It issued several directives in the last two weeks to keep vigil against electoral rule violations, use of muscle power and black money, maintain the law and order situation and create a congenial atmosphere so that voters are allured to polling stations.

Several EC officials said the EC showed severe negligence over the monitoring and shirked responsibilities, passing all duties onto the ROs.

“We have appointed Returning Officers to conduct the poll. They are solely responsible for taking all measures for holding fair elections. We will definitely cooperate with them if they seek it and supervise their tasks,” said an election commissioner on condition of anonymity.

EC officials think that ROs hold the rank of a deputy secretary. They say working in the same sphere make it difficult for ROs to act against ministers, members of parliament, political leaders and even senior government and police officials.

It was noticed in some previous elections that the EC did not infuse courage into the ROs and other election officers. Without it, they will not dare to enforce the law on VIPs and ruling party men.

This encourages elections officers to take the safe option of overlooking irregularities, they think.

Former election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain said, “During any important election, the commission should directly communicate with the returning officer daily and monitor the situation on a regular basis as well as encourage the officer to take any bold step against irregularities.”

“The commission should not follow the bureaucratic tangles, rather it should play a proactive role to ensure a congenial atmosphere,” he told The Daily Star.

The last NCC polls were held in 2011. The then EC led by ATM Shamsul Huda played a dynamic role in infusing courage into polling officials and maintaining the law and order situation.

The commission even deployed several EC officials to monitor activities of police and the civil administration, said EC officials.

“But the incumbent commission has in many instances kept mum over irregularities of ruling party men and police,” said a senior assistant secretary at the EC.

During a visit to Narayanganj yesterday, Election Commission Zabed Ali told journalists that all necessary measures would be taken for ensuring a level-playing field for all candidates.

The EC faced huge criticism as the upazila parishad elections in 2014, municipality polls in 2015, union parishad elections and the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) polls in 2016 were marred by huge irregularities and violence.

In many cases, it overlooked the irregularities instead of taking action against the criminals, said EC officials.

Police plays the most significant role in holding fair elections. But in the last few elections, police played a biased role, they think.

In the upazila elections in Chandpur, Feni, Satkhira, Munshiganj, Jessore and Tangail, police favoured Awami League-backed candidates in different polling stations, as per news reports.

Police even got locked in heated conversations with election officials and assaulted them on a number of occasions.

On March 15, 2014, the then Hizla Police Station officer-in-charge Nurul Islam in Barisal assaulted upazila Election Officer Zahedul Islam when the latter tried to prevent ruling party men from storming a polling centre.

During municipality polls in Patuakhali, Jessore, Chittagong, Magura and Narail on December 30, police played the role of silent spectators at many voting centres when supporters of the AL mayoral candidates prevented voters from entering polling centres, snatched ballot papers and stuffed those in ballot boxes.

Disappointed, many polling officials expressed inability to stop them as on duty police members were reluctant to take action in the face of high-handedness of the ruling party activists.