Polarisation over election-time govt almost completed

Editorial

THE government, presided over by the Awami League, appears to have decided and been working, for some time now, towards holding the next general elections, scheduled by the end of the year, under the partisan government framework, with the parliament still remaining fully functional during polling. What ranking government and ruling party leaders and even the people on the Election Commission have been saying for some time also suggests that it is highly likely that electronic voting machines would be used in the next parliamentary elections although 35, out of the 40, political parties registered with the commission in dialogues in 2017 disagreed on the use of voting machines. 

On the other front, where other political parties outside power are shaping up their alliance or on their own centring on their next political course, the Jatiya Oikya Front, or the national unity front, launched at a programme at the National Press Club on Saturday, has come up with demands seeking resignation of the government, dissolution of the parliament and the formation of an election-time party-neutral government for the national elections. The demands that the National Unity Front has come up in a few cases, when they relate to the holding of the national elections. are similar to, if not identical with, those of other alliances or parties.

The Left Democratic Alliance, the platform that the leftist political parties have formed, has the few demands in question in common. The Islami Andolan Bangladesh party, which is reported to be gearing for the elections, has similar demands. Outside such alliances or political parties is the alliance of 20 political parties that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the political arch-rival of the ruling Awami League, leads, having similar demands. 

The Bikalpadhara Bangladesh party, which has finally been abandoned by the Unity Front, has similar demands among others of the organisation. They all differ in their thoughts, means and ends, yet they all subscribe to the proposition that the national elections should be held under a party-neutral election-time government, with the parliament remaining dissolved for the elections and electronic voting machines, which could be made vulnerable to fraudulence, should not be used. But for the ruling party and partners in its coalition on the one side, almost all other political parties, on the other side, have on their own reached a consensus on the holding the general elections under a party-neutral government. 

The polarisation is almost completed. The Awami League-led government in 2011 nullified the provision for a non-party, election-time caretaker government based on a court decision, but the judges in the verdict conceded that two elections, in the near term, might still be under the caretaker administration. The situation has stood the Awami League where it should think of heeding the demands of all other contenders for power for the sound growth of a healthy political culture.

The government of the Awami League, under such circumstances, should give a second thought to the provisions for an election-time, party-neutral government, with the parliament being dissolved, which would hold the next general elections and other demands centring on the elections that others have put forth. A confrontation, otherwise, seems imminent.

• Courtesy: New Age / Oct 15, 2018