Staff Reporter:
The Cabinet Division has directed the officers, employees, and teaching staff of all the ministries, departments, and institutions concerned to carry out their election duties with honesty, devotion and impartiality.
Two letters – “Following the provisions of the Election Officers (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 in order to conduct the National Parliamentary Elections in a free, fair and impartial manner” and “Providing assistance to the Election Commission in order to conduct the 12th National Parliamentary Elections in a fair manner,” signed by Cabinet Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain – were sent to the offices concerned on Wednesday.
The first letter asked all the officials concerned to perform their duties with honesty, sincerity, and impartiality, without showing any laxity.
The letter said 66 returning officers and 592 assistant returning officers have already been appointed to conduct the elections.
In addition to that, officials of all the ministries, departments, and government, semi-government, autonomous, semi-autonomous organisations, and in some cases, officials and teachers of private institutions will be recruited as polling officers. They will also be given different other responsibilities related to the election during the polls.
Necessary number of magistrates and law enforcement personnel will be deployed to maintain law and order during the elections, said the Cabinet Division.
Any officer, employee, teacher or any person concerned with duties related to elections shall be considered as election officer as defined in the Election Officers (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 and they shall be held responsible by the Election Commission for the performance of their respective duties, according to the Cabinet Division directive.
It also said there may be no formal appointment letter for recruiting election officers. The concerned election officers can be charged with misconduct for reluctance, non-cooperation, laxity, and furnishing of wrong information while performing any election-related duty, and disciplinary action may be taken against them.
The second letter said the Election Commission Secretariat seeks all the concerned office’s cooperation to hold the 12th parliamentary elections scheduled on 7 January 2024 in a free, fair and impartial manner.
The letter asked the ministries, departments, directorates, offices, and different organisations to immediately instruct their employees to provide assistance and cooperation to the Election Commission by carrying out their respective election duties impartially.
The Cabinet Division also asked the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education to give similar instructions to teachers working in government, government-aided and private educational institutions.
In addition to that, the Cabinet Division asked all the ministries, departments, and government, semi-government, and autonomous institutions not to transfer or grant leave to the officials involved in polling duties, and not to assign them any job other than those related to polls until the election is over.
