President’s
Election Act [XXVII of 1991]
Sections 4 & 10—
Right to
vote or secret vote is nowhere spelt out in the Constitution. Democratic
institutions as provided in the Constitution spell out no narrowing of choice
of representatives either by direct or by secret ballot. The provisions of the
Constitution left it to be decided on the basis of political expediency and
necessity at a given time. Voting by secret ballot or by open ballot or by a
division are all accepted modes of voting and different ways of choosing
representations are not foreign to our Constitution. Only because an election
is ordered to be held by open vote, it would not be an illegal election. The
right to choose according to one’s own conscience would be existing in both the
procedures, open vote or secret vote.
Abdus Samad
Azad vs Bangladesh 44 DLR 354.
Sections 4 & 10—
Freedom of
conscience while voting as a member of the Parliament—Freedom of conscience
guaranteed under the Constitution would relate to private liberty to choose
between two alternatives as directed by the elector’s sense of moral values, in
those areas of life where the result of one’s effort affects none else but only
the individual. It is not to be extended to a voting system where the member of
the Parliament is choosing a President both as an individual and in his
capacity as a representative of the people.
Abdus Samad
Azad vs Bangladesh 44 DLR 354.
Sections 10-12—
Question of
voidability of a legislation and stay of election—For the reasons that he who
seeks equity must do equity and must come with clean hands at the earliest
opportunity and that the petitioners slept over the matter for a considerable
period of time and preferred to challenge the Act only after the promulgation
of the Ordinance which has since repealed, prayer for ad interim stay is
refused and the matter be placed before the regular Bench on the reopening of
the Court for hearing of the substantive application.
Abdus Samad
Azad MP vs Bangladesh 43 DLR 607.