Fire service yesterday doused a fire at Pritam-Zaman Tower, housing central office of Jatiya Oikyafront, in the capital's Paltan area after three hours of frantic effort.

Fire fighters also rescued at least 12 people who were trapped in the 15-storey building due to the fire.

The incident caused a one-hour delay to a pre-scheduled press conference of Jatiya Oikyafront, office of which is on the 3rd floor of the building.

Latiful Bari Hamim, a media wing member of Jatiya Oikyafront, speculated that the incident might have been an act of sabotage, aimed to impede their work ahead of Sunday's national election.

Brig Gen Ali Ahmed Khan, director general (DG) of Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence, said electric short-circuit might have caused the fire that originated around 2:40pm on the 8th-floor office of National Credit Ratings Ltd (NCR).

The fire service DG at a briefing told reporters that they doused the fire around 5:45pm, engaging 80 firemen and 15 fire engines. A five-member body to probe the incident was also formed.

“No fire-fighting system was installed in the building,” he said, adding, “We rescued three people from the 10th floor and nine others from the rooftop.”

An IT official of NCR, where the fire originated, told reporters that the office, closed for the weekly holiday and no one but the office cook, Afzal, was staying inside the office.

Around noon, Afzal went out of the office for Juma prayers and after he returned, he saw plume of smoke was coming out of the office, added the official.

Cook Afzal said the fire originated in the glass-covered server room of the business that belongs to a former police official.

Meanwhile, there were three other fire incidents yesterday in Tangail and Shariatpur, burning down a dwelling house and 20 shops.

Reasons behind the fires could not be known immediately.

It is a demonstration of political farsightedness on the part of the Prime Minister to have accepted the proposal of the Oikyafront for a dialogue. Coming against the background of statements from some party high-ups discounting any possibility of talks between the AL and the opposition, it is a very encouraging development. This a good start and we hope the opportunity will be seized upon to iron out and resolve certain thorny issues surrounding holding of the parliamentary elections. We have high expectations and would hope that both the parties would focus on the main point at issue, i.e. how to hold elections that are acceptable to all the political parties, as well as the general people.

To ensure that this meeting does not turn into a futile exercise, both the parties should display a flexible position in the discussions. There are some genuine concerns of both the opposition and the voters about the elections being free and fair. And the ruling party should allay those. The opposition too must not be rigid in their demands. Also, public perception regarding the role of the EC, and its ability to perform its tasks without let or hindrance have been much talked about, and should be addressed by the ruling party.

We understand that these issues cannot all be resolved during a one-off meeting. But dialogue cannot go on ad infinitum. Thus, we hope that both the parties would utilise the opportunity on November 1 to decide to create a mechanism of time-bound dialogue that would create a way to accommodate all the reasonable demands of the political parties contesting the upcoming elections, which can help ensure that the elections remain free, fair and credible.

It does not matter much to the Election Commission whether or not the polling is mired in widespread violence and irregularities. It has got some canned words for the nation at the end of polling. And it has kept defending the flawed elections in the same old way for the last two years.

This time too it made no exception. Despite widespread irregularities--like capturing of polling centres and stuffing ballot boxes and violence in the opening of the Union Parishad election on Tuesday, its chief Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad claimed that there were "some sporadic incidents of violence" and "the voting was peaceful in most of the centres."   

Do people believe what the EC claimed? Does the EC itself now believe the claim after the CEC and other election commissioners watched reports broadcast by TV channels during the polling and read extensive reports with photographs in all national dailies yesterday? If they still stick to his claim, they must be in denial.   

The magnitude of violence and irregularities has surpassed records of anomalies and clashes in the previous elections to local government bodies held in the last two years.

Incidents of large scale violence and irregularities including capturing polling stations took place in the three phases-elections to the upazila parishads in early of 2014, three city corporations--Dhaka and Chittagong in April and municipality polls in December 2015. The police and local administration in many areas in those polls seemed to be helpless in front of violent ruling party men.

But after the close of voting, the EC every time claimed the elections were "peaceful except for some sporadic incidents."

Defending such flawed elections by the EC keeps diminishing people's hope for fair elections and electoral system.

The way it stood by Tuesday's UP polls has made uncertain the fairness of the elections in the remaining UPs. So far, 712 UPs went to polls on Tuesday. Elections to 643 UPs are slated for March 31 and 681 UPs on April 23. Around 2,200 unions will go to polls in three more phases until June.

In all the controversial polls held in last two years, the Awami League men got landslide victories. But the flawed polls held since the one-sided parliamentary election on January 5, 2014 has dealt a severe blow to the country's electoral democracy, bulldozing people's voting rights.

The EC also appears to be helpless. Though the constitutional body enjoys great authority to ensure free and fair election, the authority could not be properly executed due to weakness in the leadership of the CEC and his colleagues.  

Yet, it might deserve some sympathy for its helplessness.

Government political will is a must for holding free and fair elections, which was largely absent in the last two years.

Elections to five city corporations held under the current EC in 2013 have remained as shining examples of the government's political goodwill. The polls to city corporations of Gazipur, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet were largely free and fair. The government's role was lauded for this.

Due to the government's commitment to fair elections, ruling party men did not dare to resort to undue influence to manipulate the polls by capturing polling stations and stuffing ballot boxes.

The above examples prove the EC can not work in isolation. But the way the EC has kept justifying the flawed elections is nothing but denial of the truths. This will only keep eroding people's confidence in the EC and restoration of people's faith in it will be a Herculean task.