An occasion doubly defeating for electorate, democracy
Published: 00:05, Jan 06,2018 | Updated: 00:04, Jan 06,2018
JANUARY 5 has come to have some bearings on the politics of Bangladesh after the ruling Awami League came to power through a farcical general elections, if at all, this day in 2014. All opposition political parties that time kept out of the electoral fray demanding that the elections should be held under a non-party government, which the Awami League refused to accept although the provision for the election-time caretaker government had come into existence in the face of Awami League protests. Subsequently, as many as 153 of the 300-member parliament were elected unopposed while in other constituencies the voter turnout was less than 10 per cent. While the Awami League has since then celebrated the day as ‘victory day for democracy’, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the largest in the opposition and the arch-rival of the Awami League, has celebrated the day as ‘democracy killing day.’ This year, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party was denied permission, by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, to hold any programme in the capital city. It had plans to hold a rally either in Suhrawardy Udyan or at Naya Paltan, where the party has its headquarters. With the situation remaining thus, the ruling Awami League held two programmes in the city — one in front of the party’s central office on Bangabandhu Avenue and the other at Banani.
The government’s not allowing the BNP to hold a programme in Dhaka, which prompted the party to hold programmes across the country but the capital city, itself defeats the cause of democratic dispensation, in which the right to freedom of expression and the right to association are honoured and never breached. A victory day for democracy, as is observed by the Awami League, without the essence of democratic spirit, thus, proves that democratic space in society has only shrunken to a dangerous extent. The reason that the BNP was not allowed to hold a rally in Suhrawardy Udyan is that an Islamic party was given permission to hold a programme at the place the same day. It is, however, anybody’s guess about why the BNP was not given the permission while the Awami League held two programmes. On the other front, the Awami League’s celebrating the day as the victory day for democracy is also defeating, and an insult to the electorate, in that when all major opposition political parties boycotted the elections, paving the way for 153 of Awami League candidates to be elected ‘uncontested’ before the actual polling took place. The number of such seats was adequate for the Awami League to form the government, which left the government to remain unrepresentative and the Awami League’s political legitimacy to be questioned.
The Awami League, in such a situation which entails disrespect to both the electorate and democratic dispensation, must stop shrinking the space for dissent for citizens and organisations. It also walks forward, with all political parties taking on board, to pave the way for proper parliamentary elections — participatory, inclusive, credible, free and fair — so that a culture of healthy politics in the spirit of democracy could be fostered.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/31882/an-occasion-doubly-defeating-for-electorate-democracy
Published: 00:05, Jan 06,2018 | Updated: 00:04, Jan 06,2018
JANUARY 5 has come to have some bearings on the politics of Bangladesh after the ruling Awami League came to power through a farcical general elections, if at all, this day in 2014. All opposition political parties that time kept out of the electoral fray demanding that the elections should be held under a non-party government, which the Awami League refused to accept although the provision for the election-time caretaker government had come into existence in the face of Awami League protests. Subsequently, as many as 153 of the 300-member parliament were elected unopposed while in other constituencies the voter turnout was less than 10 per cent. While the Awami League has since then celebrated the day as ‘victory day for democracy’, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the largest in the opposition and the arch-rival of the Awami League, has celebrated the day as ‘democracy killing day.’ This year, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party was denied permission, by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, to hold any programme in the capital city. It had plans to hold a rally either in Suhrawardy Udyan or at Naya Paltan, where the party has its headquarters. With the situation remaining thus, the ruling Awami League held two programmes in the city — one in front of the party’s central office on Bangabandhu Avenue and the other at Banani.
The government’s not allowing the BNP to hold a programme in Dhaka, which prompted the party to hold programmes across the country but the capital city, itself defeats the cause of democratic dispensation, in which the right to freedom of expression and the right to association are honoured and never breached. A victory day for democracy, as is observed by the Awami League, without the essence of democratic spirit, thus, proves that democratic space in society has only shrunken to a dangerous extent. The reason that the BNP was not allowed to hold a rally in Suhrawardy Udyan is that an Islamic party was given permission to hold a programme at the place the same day. It is, however, anybody’s guess about why the BNP was not given the permission while the Awami League held two programmes. On the other front, the Awami League’s celebrating the day as the victory day for democracy is also defeating, and an insult to the electorate, in that when all major opposition political parties boycotted the elections, paving the way for 153 of Awami League candidates to be elected ‘uncontested’ before the actual polling took place. The number of such seats was adequate for the Awami League to form the government, which left the government to remain unrepresentative and the Awami League’s political legitimacy to be questioned.
The Awami League, in such a situation which entails disrespect to both the electorate and democratic dispensation, must stop shrinking the space for dissent for citizens and organisations. It also walks forward, with all political parties taking on board, to pave the way for proper parliamentary elections — participatory, inclusive, credible, free and fair — so that a culture of healthy politics in the spirit of democracy could be fostered.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/31882/an-occasion-doubly-defeating-for-electorate-democracy
