I have no reason to bad mouth Ershad as a person or as a politician, just expressing my impression from the materials I have read from different sources.
What we need to find out conclusively is if he is pro-India or not, if he is, then I would not recommend any Bangladeshi to vote for him and his party.
He was definitely more of an effective administrator, although not a visionary leader like Bhashani or Zia (both were extremely anti-India). And one thing he was good at, like you mentioned, was that he was more diplomatic, and solved problems with financial incentives rather than killing opponents, quite unlike the history with Zia and Mujib factions.
To remove any confusion about him, if Ershad wants to help Bangladesh, he should not be a opportunist politician running after power and position. Instead he should think about the country's greater interest and come out of the pro-India alliance led by AL and join the pro-Bangladesh BNP-Jamat 18 party alliance, so the whole country can unite against pro-India politicians:
Grand Alliance (Bangladesh) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jatiya Party - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hussain Muhammad Ershad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
On 8 April 2008, Ershad took charge of his Jatiya Party once again[38] In 2006 he protested against the controversial Election Commissioner (CEC) MA Aziz decisions on holding polls. He later joined the street movement along with Awami League.[39]
On 19 November 2008 Jatiya Party & Awami League agreed to contest the elections jointly under the Caretaker Government to be held on 29 December 2008. Out of the 300 Constituencies in the Parliament, Ershad's Jatiya Party contest from 49 (later 42 as Awami League did not pull back its candidates from few seats as agreed earlier) seats and Awami League and members of a leftist Fourteen Party Coalition from the rest 250 seats.[40] Thus the Grand Alliance (Mohajote in Bangla) emerged in Bangladesh.
Ershad contested the Bangladesh Parliamentary Election 2008 from three constituencies. According to Bangladesh electoral laws, a person is allowed to contest from three places, but can retain only one seat and two are to have by-elections after formation of government. These constituencies included his birthplace Rangpur (Rangpur-3 and Kurigram-2), and Dhaka-17, the capital's diplomatic zone, where he resides. He won all three seats in the election.
Ershad has been considered as an unpredictable character in Bangladesh politics.
He joined 4 Party Alliance at the end of BNP term of 2001-06 after meetings with Tarique and Babar at his (Ershad) Residence, which was followed by meeting with Khaleda Zia at her (Zia) Cantonment's Mainul Road House. In late October 2006 he said he is not with 4 Party Alliance and the following day he reversed position. Later, he went to hiding for 3 days and joined Grand Alliance at Paltan Maidan with Sheikh Hasina. Sheikh Hasina breached agreement with him on to make him the President for at least six months. Moeen also committed to make him President before 11 January 2007. Ershad was offered to be head of the Government in 1991 by Sheikh Hasina while he was in jail and by Khaleda Zia in 1996 before Awami League formed Government after 21 years.[41] H M Ershad joined 4 Party alliance earlier also after 1996 elections and left later.
Ershad has been a pro-Indian element[42] and compromised with interest of Bangladesh.[43]
He appointed Bobby Hajjaz, eldest son of Musa Bin Shamsher [2], most famous international arms dealer of Bangladesh, as his special adviser on February 24, 2013. [3]
Source 42 and 43 for Ershad's pro-India stance:
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