THE next general election is around the corner. The last one was held on December 30, 2018. Hence, the next one must be held on any date three months before December 30, 2023 when the present parliament’s term would end. The next election would be held after the last two elections were held in a manner in which the people were unable to vote freely and fairly. The 2023 election would, therefore, be of critical importance.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party and allies boycotted the 2014 general election over the demand for the caretaker government. The boycott resulted in not a single vote being cast in 154 of the 300 seats in the national assembly, rendering the 2014 general election, fatally flawed. In 2018, overenthusiastic supporters of the ruling party in law enforcement and the administration ensured its massive victory by largely filling ballot boxes the night before the election, earning it the name of ‘a midnight election.’ These flawed elections will, therefore, remain as permanent scars on the glorious history of the country.
General elections are extremely important for any democratic country. In the case of Bangladesh, it is of historical importance. In December 1970, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman used the free and fair general election of Pakistan as the vehicle to unite the 75 million people of East Pakistan as a monolith for achieving their political and economic rights. He led the Awami League to win 167 of the 169 seats in East Pakistan which gave his party the right to form the government with him as the prime minister of Pakistan. Pakistan’s military-civilian junta refused to honour the election result that led Bangabandhu to declare the independence of Bangladesh and its 75 million people to fight their glorious war of independence.
The general election of December 1970 was the mechanism through which East Pakistanis sent out the message to Pakistan’s military-civil junta that they would no longer tolerate West Pakistan’s neo-colonial rule over them. The right to vote freely and fairly in a general election was, therefore, the very essence that gave life to Bangladesh as a nation. Thus, the Awami League knows the importance of a free and fair general election better than any other political party in Bangladesh because it led the movement for the independence of Bangladesh.
The Awami League iterated its commitment to the free and fair election during the BNP’s 1991–96 term of office. It stated categorically and unequivocally that there could not be any free and fair general election if the party in power controlled and conducted such an election. Thus, midway into the BNP’s 1991–96 term, the Awami League took the demand for election under a caretaker government to the streets. The Jatiya Party and the Jamaat which were also in the opposition that time also joined the demand of the Awami League for a general election under the caretaker government.
The election to the Magura 2 parliamentary seat in March 1994 allowed the Awami League to strengthen its demand for a general election under a caretaker government. That election was badly tainted by interference of the ruling party so much so that Magura thereafter became synonymous with an unfair and corrupt election. The Awami League enforced a total of 266 days of general strike during its movement for the caretaker government that brought the government to a standstill. It also brought Sir Ninian Stephen, the retired governor general of Australia, to Bangladesh for talks in 1994 with the political parties for a settlement to the dangerous impasse. Sir Ninian’s negotiations were unsuccessful. The BNP-led government, thereafter, went ahead and held the 1996 general election keeping to the constitution.
The Awami League boycotted the elections held in February 1996 that the BNP won with a huge majority. The BNP did not use its massive victory to govern the country but to bring the 13th amendment to the constitution to implement the Awami League’s demand that all future general elections would be held under a caretaker government to be headed by the most recently retired chief justice for conducting the general election after the party in power stepped down from office. The Awami League won the first election under the caretaker government system marginally but in the true spirit of a free and fair election.
Ironically, the Awami League killed its creation, namely the caretaker government system in 2011 in denial of the passionate arguments it had made in its favour and the sacrifices it had made to establish it. It killed the caretaker government system also in denial of the fact that under it, three general elections were held peacefully and power was transferred democratically. The Awami League killed the caretaker government system through the 15th amendment during its 2009–14 term that set the clock back and brought the party government back into the constitution to hold general elections.
The BNP boycotted the 2014 general elections after unsuccessfully demanding the restoration of the caretaker government with the same arguments the Awami League had made during the BNP’s 1991-96 term, only the BNP’s arguments were much stronger. The Awami League systematically and methodically politicised all the bodies critical for holding a general election freely and fairly. It politicised the law enforcement agencies, the civil bureaucracy and largely the mainstream media. The Election Commission became in reality an extension of the ruling party.
The election commissions that conducted the 2014 and 2018 general elections and other elections were a shame to the very idea of election in a democratic polity. Between them, they successfully turned every election in the country into what the BNP tried to do in the Magura bye-election and much worse. They transformed the election system in the country into one where no opposition party can expect to win a general election anymore. There are some in the opposition who can still hope to win a few seats because they have held those seats over many elections.
The BNP, thus, stated repeatedly and expectedly that it would not participate in the 2023 general election unless the caretaker government system is restored. The BNP’s demand is understandable for there would be no point for it to participate in an election held under the AL government given the realities that now exist in the election system. The Awami League’s argument that the constitution cannot be violated to deny the BNP’s demand for the caretaker government is a lame excuse. The Awami League has the necessary majority to amend the constitution to reintroduce the caretaker government system as easily as the BNP had done in 1996 when it introduced the caretaker government through the 13th amendment.
Major powers have always influenced general elections in Bangladesh in major ways. In 2014 and 2018, the US/allies and India were all on the same page to keep the BNP/Jamaat alliance from winning at any cost because they concluded that would be a victory for Islamic terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism. Today, these powers are no longer on the same page; they are not even in the same book.
US President Biden has already spoken strongly and unequivocally for democracy and human and electoral rights. He has already held a Summit for Democracy of 110 countries in December 2021 to which Bangladesh was not invited. He is using these rights to unite the world against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The US ambassador to Bangladesh Richard Haas in a talk at the BIISS recently iterated Biden’s vision of democracy, human rights and democratic elections. The ambassador stated that the United States was engaged in ‘democratic revival’ for which the major emphasis had been placed on ‘police accountability’ and ‘ensuring all Americans cast their ballots on election day.’
The ambassador stated that as far as the United States was concerned, Bangladesh’s next general elections ‘must be consistent with international standards.’ He also stated that ‘elections are not just about the day votes are cast’ but ‘about space for civic discourse… an environment where journalists can investigate without fear, and the ability for civil society organizations to advocate broadly.’ The ambassador underlined that from the US perspective, Bangladesh’s next general election has already begun and is under the US radar within these parameters. The ambassador’s talk at BIISS was encouraging because the western powers, including the European Union, are also likely to set the same parameters for Bangladesh’s next general election.
For Bangladesh, it is critically important that its next general election should be held where voters would be able to vote freely and without fear to elect the party of their choice to power for which the BNP’s participation is indispensable. The BNP has made it clear that it would not participate unless it is a caretaker government that should hold the elections. The way the Awami League has held the 2014 and 2018 elections and the politics accompanying these elections has left little doubt that the caretaker government system that the Awami League forced on the country in 1991–96 is the key to future political stability of Bangladesh. The alternative is too scary, made scarier by recent developments in Sri Lanka.
M Serajul Islam is a retired career ambassador.