CEC Huda slams colleague Mahbub

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC)  KM Nurul Huda has publicly accused Mahbub Talukder of “doing everything possible to demean, defame and undermine” the Election Commission.

Talukder, an election commissioner, has been demeaning the Election Commission intentionally to fulfill his personal interest, Huda alleged in an event organised to observe ‘National Voter Day’ on Tuesday.

Talukder was present at the event and spoke ahead of Huda. The CEC came down hard on Talukder while delivering his speech as the chief guest of the event. “Since the day he joined us, Mahbub Talukder has always taken out a piece of paper from his pocket and read out everything negative about the EC. Today wasn’t an exception to it,” Huda said. Talukder delivered a political speech to mark National Voter Day, Huda said.

“He doesn’t work to serve the interest of the Election Commission; rather he does whatever it takes to demean the EC to serve his personal interest,” he said. “I thought he would say something about National Voter Day, but he delivered a political statement.”

The election commissioner can work independently and can easily design a statement on the mistakes and shortcomings of the EC by scrutinising the old documents, said Huda. What are the responsibilities of the EC? What are the officials doing? Questions can be raised on these issues, he said.

“Local elections do not have much importance; on the contrary, bagging a nomination has become the priority. A model of irregularity in the local elections has been built around violence, capture of voting centres and destruction of EVMs,” Talukder said in his written statement, titled ‘My Words.’

Electoral integrity will further erode in Bangladesh unless the polling system is revamped, according to Talukder.