Jan 7 polls will be a farce: Experts
Noman Mosharef :
Country’s eminent citizens and election experts have expressed theopinion that the upcoming national election is going to be held in a manner which is not in consistent with established democratic norms and principles.
And the Election Commission’s decision on holding the polls boycotted by the major opposition parties will turnout to be a farce.
They said January 7 election is being considered the final nail in the coffin of the drowning democracy of the country.
The experts are also comparing the 12th parliamentary polls as a “Potemkin village” election.
The phrase “Potemkin village” refers to an elaborate facade designed to hide an undesirable reality.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the term comes from a popular myth where Grigory Potemkin, then governor of New Russia (modern Cremia), constructed fake villages to impress foreign dignitaries accompanied by Russian empress Catherine the Great in 1787.
Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik Secretary Badiul Alam Majumder on Sunday said that Bangladesh’s next general election that is going to be held on January 7 would not be called an election at all, rather would be a ‘voting game’.
He came up with the remark at a meeting titled ‘Journalists Orientation on Votebd Website’, organised by The Hunger Project, at IDB building in Agargaon in the capital.
‘Considering the competition, it is not an election,’ he said and explained that a strong opposition party was needed for an election and for democracy.
‘Democracy means multi-party democracy. So, I call it (January 7 general election) a voting game, not election.’
He said, ‘I think we are now in a constitutional crisis because the Fifteenth Amendment which brought back the electoral system under party government is unconstitutional.
So, there is a question about the constitutional legitimacy of the current government.’
Social scientist and local governance expert Dr. Tofail Ahmed said I think it’s not an election rather we can name it as a selection process.
Actually I have no evaluation about the election said Dr. Tofail Ahmed adding that where there is no competition how come
you call it as a national election.
Everybody knows the result of the election as how they divided the constituency to their allies and what result will happen, he said.
The local governance expert said a standard election requires multi-party participation in polls while the upcoming election is going to stage a one- party poll race.
Dr. Md. Shamsul Alam, Professor, Department of Government & Politics, JahangirnagarUniversity, said the upcoming national election which is going to held January 7 is a fake election where there is no participation of people of the country.
Dr. Md. Shamsul Alam said even the ruling party Awami League (AL) has violated the party constitution.
According to AL constitution if any leader participate in the election violating the party decision will lose the membership of the AL.
But in this election a lot of AL leaders are participating in the polls in the name of dummy candidates.
It is not an election whereas we can say it is a field of war where two fighting groups are Awami League vs Awami League, he added.
He further said this election can be considered as a programme of waste of state money as the governing is expending Tk1.5 thousands crore to stage a one party election.
