Amidst the tumultuous political events of 2006-07 the distinct and most consensus demand from by and across the social spectrum was Electoral Reform that included the re-construction of the Election Commission of Bangladesh (BEC) i.e. the Electoral Management Body (EMB). Then opposition, 14 party alliance led by Awami League (AL) had put forward 23 point demand of which major thrust on Electoral Reform whatever that might have meant. In those points salient were Electoral roll with photograph, changes in the electoral law, political party registration and reconstruction of the Election Commission with new setup. These were set as precondition for participating in elections that were to be held in January 2007. Of course the other tangible issue that was the of Chief Adviser of the Care taker government as was provided in the Constitution before the current amendment. These demands were however rejected by the then ruling party which led to street violence that could have precipitated into civil strife. However, the confrontational political path that was adopted by the ruling party and the opposition had resulted into bloodletting in street of the capital bringing normal life to a halt. Under such circumstances on January 11, 2007 President of People's Republic of Bangladesh proclaimed emergency under the provision of the constitution. Election was postponed and BEC was reconstituted in February 2007.

The Electoral Reform that was called for by the combined opposition was not out of the cold but for years that civil society raised such demand for the conduct of free and fair impartial elections which would truly reflect the voters choice. Serious doubts were raised on the integrity of the construction of the Commission by the political government without following any principle or best practices for such appointments. Due to such surreptitious appointments most of the BEC lost the credibility to the public. The credibility of the BEC headed by Justice Aziz Ahmed was one such Commission which had hardly any credibility due to its partisan behavior. The electoral roll that the Commission had prepared was flawed. It was proved while preparing new voter roll with photograph that about 12 million plus spurious voters name were included in the roll. Electoral Law was skewed. No major reforms were brought to the law or to the conduct of the election.

All combined the pressure from below grew for Electoral Reform. In fact apart from political party's demand the pressure group created by the civil society gathered public opinion for reforms through seminars, workshops and most effective of all by the use of media. Numerous recommendations were sent to the BEC to help in desired reform.

Under such circumstances, having carried out in house review of the past initiatives of the BEC undertaken the newly formed BEC set in motion much desired reforms before the rearranged 9th parliamentary stalled elections. Three important areas were identified by the commission, near perfect electoral roll that should not only allow headcount only but actively participate in voter list preparation. In fact a voter active methodology was adopted to prepare voter list, substantial reform of electoral law to support the more elaborate and innovative electoral system and logistics lastly the EMB structure and reestablishing public confidence on the EMB that was seriously lacking over the past few years. The BEC had uphill task before it could arrange for stalled 9th parliamentary elections.

The BEC had close look at the unsuccessful attempt of the past reforms and reasons for failure. A serious review of the past was made before initiating the massive reform in electoral process. The review revealed that past attempts was top down instead of pressured from below. The other factor, but most important, was that the past attempts were taken arbitrarily instead of consultative to make it participatory.

Having reviewed the requirement of the reform and lessons from the past the BEC set to consider the way forward for comprehensive reform. A plan was formulated and a road map with a time frame was set by the BEC. It is needless to say that a free fair and legitimate election is the first step for sustainable democracy.