Election and Democracy in Bangladesh, The Unknown Riddle and Proposal for Improvement
Introduction:
In the contemporary world, in comparison with dictator’s, military’s or kings’ rule, democratic governance by the elected representatives is considered to be by far the best. The democracy in Bangladesh is seen by the rest of the world with great interest and enthusiasm for one valid reason, this is the lone Muslim country (in the recent amendment of constitution, the religion of the Muslims has been retained as state religion, and by that way the validity of the term ‘secularism’ has been made questionable) in the world that has got some sort of multi-party democracy. Its story, however, is not that bright. During the short life-span of Bangladesh spanning about 41 years (1971-2012 AD), the country has been ruled by the military dictators for about 15 years (1975-1990= 15 years), at times under the name ‘military rule’ and at times, in the name of “democracy” as introduced by them. Theoretically the country can be said to be ruled under democracy for 25 years (1971-75 and 1991 to 2012). But the people did not see much success of this type of government. The prime cause of the failure of the elected government to work efficiently is “Efficient people are not elected in the election”. The natural question here is “Why cannot the most efficient people be elected ?” The probable answers are : (01) There is no such efficient person in this country (may be). (02) The efficient people fight in election, but cannot win, and (03) There is little scope for the efficient people to win in the present system of election.
The people know very well that only the third answer is correct. How scopes can be created in our election system for the inclusion of efficient people is a big question and is not the topic of today’s discussion. Today, we want to address the burning question, “How the election commission can assure a free and fair election”. At present there are two parallel demands going strong in the country. These are : (a) Free and fair election can be held under the elected government and (02) Free and fair election can be held only under the Care Taker government.
In our country there happened as many as 8 general elections in (01) 1973, (02) 1979, (03) 1980, (04) 1988, (05) 1991, (05) 1994, (06) 1996, (07) 2001 (08) 2008, of which 4 (1991, 1996, 2001 and 2008) were held under the caretaker government. There is a belief going on the country that election, if held under the caretaker government, becomes free and fait. Today, in this paper we shall present documents that would prove beyond doubt that none of the above generation elections were in fact fair or neutral. In other words, the results of elections held under the care taker government failed to give fair and neutral results, not to say anything about that held under political parties.
In this paper we shall endeavor to show three things, viz. (01) Were the elections held under the caretaker government fair and neutral ? (02) Were the elections held under political government fair and neutral ? (03) How can we ensure free and fair results in the election, within the current basic framework of the system of election ?
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