Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi

 

How to conduct Bangladesh's parliamentary elections, which will be held Jan. 5, has sparked a raging debate in the country. An “all-party” interim government headed by the Awamy League leader and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was installed last week to oversee the upcoming elections despite calls for a boycott by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which termed the move a “farce,” heightening tension in the country. The interim government came to power at a time when the opposition parties intensified their demand that the Sheikh Hasina government should resign and transfer power to a non-party caretaker government, a constitutional provision which was annulled two years ago.



The caretaker system was introduced in Bangladesh in 2006 when elections were held two times. The first time, the Awamy League-led opposition boycotted the election as it was held while BNP chief Begum Khaleda Zia was in power. This prompted the opposition to take to the streets with protest marches and strikes that crippled normal life in the country. The Khaleda government won the elections marked by the boycott of major opposition parties. This forced the government to retreat and bow to the demand of the opposition to conduct elections under a caretaker government.



Under the caretaker system, the incumbent government must resign three months before elections to make way for a caretaker government made up of neutral leaders. The caretaker government, which is headed by the last retired chief justice of the Supreme Court in the country, must oversee the entire election process and hand over power to the winners following the elections.



The caretaker system was followed in successive elections to parliament during the years 1996, 2002 and 2007. There were some problems reported during these elections. The objections were raised mainly against those who headed the caretaker government, especially in 2007 when the president of the country had to declare an emergency to deal with the situation which was done with the backing of the military. In that election, the alliance led by Sheikh Hasina’s party had a landslide victory.



This eventually helped the alliance to clinch a verdict from the court declaring the caretaker system to be unconstitutional. Subsequent to this, parliament decided to revoke this system in 2011. The opposition alliance declared openly that it will not put trust in the current government and that it is impossible to have a free and fair election if it is under the government’s supervision. The opposition called for nationwide strikes and protests until their demand is met to hold elections under a caretaker government. They have also threatened to launch a civil disobedience movement.



On the other hand, Sheikh Hasina roundly rejects any demand for a caretaker government. She claims that her government has supervised several local and municipal elections and that they were free, fair and transparent. She pledges to hold the parliamentary elections with  the same transparency and fairness. It is obvious that Sheikh Hasina has managed to clinch a deal with the former military ruler and president Hussain Muhammad Ershad who was part of her ruling alliance but later broke away. Ershad has repeatedly announced that he would never enter the election process unless  all parties participated in the process. But he suddenly changed his mind and announced that he has decided to participate in the election.  



Ershad was lured by an offer from the ruling alliance that it would either facilitate the victory of some of his candidates so that they can act as the opposition in the absence of the real opposition or that the government would appoint to parliament some of his candidates who were unable to win the election.



What is most painful is that Sheikh Hasina has resorted to tactics of terrorizing the opposition and detaining its leaders with baseless allegations and deliberately fabricated charges. The well-known Bangladeshi writer and editor-in-chief of the Daily Star newspaper Mahfouz Anam wrote the following about this scenario: “What Sheikh Hasina’s government is doing is destroying the whole notion of rule of law by flouting it, bending it, distorting and downright abusing it. It is taking the desire of the people to see strong action taken against the violence unleashed by the recent hartals and using it against the criminals among the BNP rank and file, but instead using it against top leaders who cannot even remotely have been associated with it.”



He continued by saying: “By so doing the Awami League government is setting a dangerous precedent of how to use the legal system to harass, weaken and selectively imprison opposition leaders before a national election and thereby cripple the opposition. The ruling party is behaving as if there is no tomorrow, and that political power will never change and a day will not come when it will have to sit on the opposition benches.”



Anam criticized the government for detaining some prominent opposition leaders such as the former Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Moudud Ahmed, M.K. Anwar and Rafiqul Islam Miah. It is very difficult to prove the charges framed against them. This shows clearly that Sheikh Hasina has been working to exclude the opposition from the corridors of power so as to enjoy it for herself. However, she should realize the fact that such moves will have serious consequences and are not going to succeed.

 

— Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi is a former Saudi diplomat who specializes in Southeast Asian affairs. He can be reached at algham@hotmail.com