A new Election Commission has taken office amid a novel set of challenges. Besides the typical challenge of building trust and credibility, the Nasir Uddin commission is also burdened with high expectations following the mass uprising of July and August. Typically, the immediate challenge of the top election office is to create a pathway to free, fair, inclusive and credible national elections as well as local elections (city corporations, sub-districts councils and union councils).
But this time, local elections perceptibly have far less import than alignment with the people's aspirations. This will also include creation of such a pathway that facilitates a peaceful transition following those elections. It is also for this reason that establishing the credibility of the next elections is absolutely imperative.
One of the reasons behind people taking to the streets was that the Hasina-led government deprived citizens from their right to vote since 2008. This naturally eroded people's trust in the neutrality and independence of the Election Commission, which was a mere rubber stamp to legalise Awami League's usurpation of power in last three elections of 2014, 2018 and 2024. The 2014 election was not just one-sided.
It saw 153 MPs elected to the 300-seat parliament unopposed. In the 2018 elections, there were numerous reports of ballot-box stuffing on the eve of the elections while the 2024 election saw a string of dummy candidates by the ruling party to bolster the number of .