The rude disobedience shown by the field-level administrators – deputy commissioners (DCs) and superintendents of police (SPs) – to the current Election Commission (EC) has once again shown us what’s wrong at the core of our election management mechanism. On the one hand, it shows that civil bureaucracy is now out of control due to the politicisation of the institution and their lack of accountability. On the other, it exposes the receding authority of a constitutional body. The faltering EC’s struggle to earn public confidence has just gotten even harder. Despite Election Commissioner Rashida Sultana’s bold attempt to brush aside the civil servants’ grievous misconduct by describing the incident to Deutsche Welle (DW) Bangla as a “simple misunderstanding,” the nature of the friction between the EC and the returning officers during an ongoing electoral process should not be allowed to be swept under the carpet. Though the meeting was held on camera, the description of the untoward inci...