Withdraw over 90 partisan officials

Jatiya Oikyafront has demanded withdrawal of 92 officials of the civil and police administrations, including the secretaries of the Election Commission, home and public administration ministries, for ensuring a level playing field for all candidates in the national election.

The opposition alliance, composed of BNP and some other political parties, submitted a list of “partisan and controversial officials” to the chief election commissioner (CEC) yesterday.

A team of the Oikyafront, led by BNP Joint Secretary General Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, submitted 13 letters to EC Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed yesterday morning. Two of them contained names of 22 civil servants and 70 senior police officials.

The letters, signed by BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, also the spokesperson of the Oikyafront, made allegations on different issues.

Talking to reporters after submitting the letters, Alal said, “We didn't make wholesale allegations. Today [yesterday], we have submitted all the evidence in written form.”

He said a level playing field has not yet been created yet.

“All the elements are there so that we stay away from the election. The Election Commission gave many directives, but none of those has yet been implemented. We want implementation of all its orders.

“We demand withdrawal of more than 60 top police officials, including the deputy and additional inspectors general of police. In the list, we have mentioned the names and other identities of the officials who are involved in making the ground even more uneven,” he said.

In one of the letters, the alliance alleged that the ruling party-backed civil servants, who were in different tiers of the civil administration before the announcement of the polls schedule, were still in office. It termed the incident unexpected.

The Oikyafront said the EC secretary cannot be kept in any post relating to the parliamentary polls during the election period as his “neutrality was questionable.”

Helal Uddin served as the deputy commissioner of Faridpur for four years after the Awami League had assumed office in 2009. After being promoted to joint secretary post, he joined as divisional commissioner of Rajshahi in 2012, the alliance said.

During the 2014 national election, he performed as the coordinator of Rajshahi division and was promoted to additional secretary “as a reward”. He worked as the divisional commissioner of Dhaka before joining the EC as its secretary.

“More than 100 officials of BCS '82, '82 (special) and '84 batches were superseded to make him secretary,” said the letter, adding that the alliance came to know from sources that the EC secretary was showing intelligence reports to commission officials and threatening them.

The Oikyafront alleged that Faiz Ahmed was made public administration secretary to “arrange” the field level administration as per the government's “evil design”.

“He became the junior-most secretary in the history of the public administration ministry,” the letter said.

Faiz was involved in Chhatra League politics and was the PS to former state minister KM Jahangir, read the letter.

The opposition alliance also raised question about the neutrality of Home Secretary Kamal Uddin Ahmed, saying that he was a “revengeful” official and that he too was involved in Chhatra League politics.

Apart from the secretaries, the alliance demanded withdrawal of two divisional commissioners and 17 deputy commissioners who have been made returning officers for the December 30 polls.

In another letter, it demanded withdrawal of 70 officials of law enforcement agencies, including Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Asadauzzaman Mia and Director General of Rab Benazir Ahmed. It demanded the EC keep the officials away from election duties.

The Oikyafront also demanded stopping of publicity of so-called development works with photographs of the prime minister, ministers and lawmakers on the electronic and digital display boards at government establishments.

The alliance asked the EC to take strict measures to stop police from harassing the possible polling officials, terming such an act unprecedented.