পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (দ্বিতীয় খণ্ড).pdf/২২৫

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বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ দ্বিতীয় খণ্ড
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 The main objection against the introduction of adult suffrage is that the common people, on account of their illiteracy and ignorance, cannot appreciate any important issue objectively and are, therefore, incapable of casting votes with understanding and a sense of responsibility. The other objection is that the electorate, under adult suffrage, will be so huge that it will be administratively difficult to manage it. Both the Simon Commission and die Indian Franchise Committee, who successively examined the question of franchise more than 30 years ago, also took these points into consideration and expressed their views in favor of universal adult franchise as the ultimate objective, but could not then recommend it mainly due to practical difficulties, in the part of the then inadequate and inexperienced staff, lo manage a huge electorate and partly on the ground of mass illiteracy and lack of political education. Mass poverty, like mass illiteracy, was not, however, expressly taken, by the said Commission and committee, as one of the grounds against adoption of universal adult franchise in India, although they favored properly qualification as a basis of franchise. Even illiteracy was not considered, by them, to be a serious obstruction.........................

 It is, therefore, expected that it will now be possible on the part of the adequate and experienced election machinery to cope with a huge electorate resulting from introduction of universal adult suffrage and hold and conduct elections smoothly. As a matter of fact, this has been fully established in the general elections held in West Punjab and East Bengal, on the basis of universal adult franchise.

 The next argument against universal adult suffrage is that at an election on such suffrage, there is the danger of the public being easily misled into electing people, not on a consideration of their programme but merely in an emotional state of mind created by the inflaming of passions by misrepresentation. An instance of the inflaming of passions of illiterate masses cited before us and also before the Constitution Commission is the crushing defeat of the Muslim League in the 1954 general election in East Pakistan. While it may be true that many a voter was carried away by the inflammatory speeches of the opponents of the Muslim League, it is not correct to say that the defeat of the Muslim League was solely, or mainly, due to such speeches. The Muslim League, the then party in power, appeared to have lost its popularity for various reasons. No general election was held in East Pakistan for about seven years preceding 1954. Even a large number of bye-elections, which had fallen due during the said period, was withheld. Moreover, the Muslim League, which was also in power at the Centre, was unable to give the country a constitution for several years. It seems that these facts coupled with the language controversy made the Muslim League unpopular and that its defeat in the general election of 1954 was really attributable to its own unpopularity. However, the danger, if any, well be there even in the case of election on the basis of restricted adult franchise. We have already seen that, with the inauguration of Provincial autonomy in 1937, voting qualifications based on property, education or tax were so liberally lowered that all persons aged 21 or above, whether male or female, literate or illiterate, rich or poor, became entitled to vote, if they possessed any of the prescribed minimum qualifications.