General elections are scheduled to be held in Bangladesh in January 2024 under the auspices of the 2024 Bangladesh Election Commission, the official body responsible for ensuring free and fair elections in the country.
Background
The current Sangsad is scheduled to expire on 29 January 2024, as the first session of this parliament sat on 30 January 2019 and the tenure of a parliament lasts five years.
The Awami League won the 2018 general elections and formed the government. Though the election result and conduct was controversial.
The main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), demanded that the government hand over power to a neutral caretaker government before the next elections. This has been rejected by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who vowed that “Bangladesh will never allow an unelected government again”.[6] Hasina’s resistance to a caretaker government arose following the 2006–2008 crisis, during which a caretaker government assumed military control of the country and arrested a number of political leaders, including Hasina and BNP leader Khaleda Zia. Zia was sentenced to prison for five years on February 8, 2018, for her involvement in the Zia Orphanage corruption case. The sentence was then modified to 10 years. Khaleda Zia’s successor as chair of the party, her son Tarique Rahman, was also found guilty of criminal conspiracy and multiple counts of murder for a grenade attack in 2004 that injured Hasina and killed 24 people. He was sentenced to life in prison. As such, he was barred from running for office. Though many say these all are done by ruling party for political gains.
In order to guarantee that the election will be conducted in accordance with electoral law and the constitution, the 2024 Bangladesh Election Commission was formed on 27 February 2022. It is responsible for announcing election schedules, outlining constituency zones, preparing electoral rolls, supervising the elections, announcing the election’s results, and establishing election boards to settle any election disputes. It is chaired by Kazi Habibul Awal, Md. Alamgir, Anisur Rahman, Rashida Sultana Emily and Ahsan Habib Khan. But there is a big question before the people how far the commission can maintain the neutrality due to government influence.
Electoral system
The 350 members of the Jatiya Sangsad consist of 300 directly elected seats using first-past-the-post voting in single-member constituencies, and an additional 50 seats reserved for women. The reserved seats are elected proportionally by the elected members. Each parliament sits for a five-year term.
Controversy
The BNP has demanded that there should be a caretaker government during election season because, as Citizens for Good Governance founder-secretary Badiul Alam Majumder has claimed, every election in Bangladesh that was not conducted under a caretaker government has been marred by irregularities. Without a caretaker government, the BNP has stated its intent to boycott the elections. On May 17, 2023, BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said: “[Our] movement and elections cannot go hand in hand. Participating in elections under [the current government] means to validate them. We cannot continue our movement with those who compete in the elections when the leaders and activists are being arrested and harassed while protesting to free the country from this illegal government. Rather, it is time to identify them and uproot them politically.” On June 3, 2023, the BNP expelled 43 of its leaders for life as a result of their decision to participate in the Sylhet City Corporation election.
The BNP has been aligned throughout its existence with the Jamaat-e-Islami, a far-right lslamist party, and it is linked to groups like Jamaat ul-Mujaheddin and Harkat-ul-Jihad. Jamaat-e-Islami was banned from participating in elections in 2013, and many of its former leaders have gone on to form the Bangladesh Development Party (BDP), which intends to participate in the elections. The president of the BDP, Anwarul Islam Chan, has denied any affiliations with the Jamaat, saying: “The post-liberation generation was born after independence. We are a political party and not interested in such issues” as opposing Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan.
The Awami League, on the other hand, has insisted that a caretaker government would be unconstitutional and that the Election Commission is independent and sanctioned by law.
The Bangladeshi Ministry of Foreign Affairs asserted “the electoral process will remain under strict vigilance, including by international observers as accredited by the Election Commission. “Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr. AK Abdul Momen said on April 10, 2023, in a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the independent election commission is key to holding fair, transparent elections
US Position
On May 23, 2023, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new visa policy vis-a-vis Bangladesh in order to support the country’s goal of holding free, fair, and peaceful national elections. The policy states that the US would “restrict the issuance of visas for any Bangladeshi individual, believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic election process in Bangladesh”, including “current and former Bangladeshi officials, members of pro-government and opposition political parties, and members of law enforcement, the judiciary, and security services”. The policy lists actions that would undermine the election process as “vote rigging, voter intimidation, the use of violence to prevent people from exercising their right to freedoms of association and peaceful assembly, and the use of measures designed to prevent political parties, voters, civil society, or the media from disseminating their views”.
The restrictions were meant to act as a signal to the Bangladeshi government to hold democratic elections and to the BNP to participate in the elections, as a boycott of them could lead to instability. When asked how the US would navigate a situation in which a party that refuses to participate in the national election would later make the claim that the election was unfair, US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said: “I don’t have anything else to get into, as it’s an internal, domestic election” and that all the US wants is that it should be free, fair, and reflective of the will of the Bangladeshi people.
On August 1, 2023, US Ambassador Peter Haas announced after meeting with Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal that a US pre-election monitoring team consisting of experts with previous experience in election monitoring and preparation, would arrive in Bangladesh in October before the election.
Foreign Monitoring
On May 7, 2023, Prime Minister Hasina urged Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland to send diversified election observers for the election while stating that her government has made the election commission an independent and powerful institution to strengthen the democratic process in the country.
A group of human rights organizations wrote to 14 members of Congress urging them to be aware of how the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami have been operating “overtly and covertly in cahoots with terrorist groups, like Ansar al Islam, since 2001.
Terry Isley, a member of an independent election monitoring delegation that visited Bangladesh in August 2023, said that the demand for a caretaker government is unconstitutional and illegal in the present political context of Bangladesh. He also expressed disappointment that the BNP refused to meet with the delegation.
UN denouncement of police violence
On August 4, 2023, the United Nations denounced pre-election violence in Bangladesh, calling for police “to refrain from excessive use of force amid recurring violence and mass arrests ahead of general elections”. This is a human rights issue concerning violence erupting at opposition rallies in 2023, and the harsh response by police using rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons. A UN spokesman said: “Police, alongside men in plain clothing, have been seen using hammers, sticks, bats and iron rods, among other objects, to beat protesters”. He added that hundreds of people who oppose the government have been arrested before and during the rallies.
UN concerns have arisen after Sheikh Hasina rejected demands by the BNP and its allies for the government to step down and allow the January election to be held under a neutral caretaker government. The UN has stressed that Hasina’s government “must abide by their human rights obligations and allow people to exercise their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of opinion and expression”.
Responding to the UN statement, Mahfuz Anam commented: “From the looks of it, our two major political parties are preparing for ‘gladiatorial’ street fights as a part of their election preparation. Can this be democracy?” Later on August 4, Information Minister Hasan Mahmud attacked the BNP during a mosquito eradication conference in Dhaka, saying: “Dengue mosquitoes bite people and BNP puts people on fire and burns cars. Therefore, like dengue, BNP has to be prevented”.
Soon after Mahfuz Anam spoke, there was a meeting in Dhaka of the 14-party alliance led by the Awami League. They announced a rally to be held on August 7 before Awami League HQ on Bangabandhu Avenue. The purpose of the rally is to protest against the “terror and anarchy” of BNP and to “prevent any conspiracy of the BNP-Jamaat”. A spokesman said alliance members will take to the streets across the whole country, besides Dhaka.
Currently a foggy situation is prevailing in Bangladesh due to serious stubborn attitude of ruling Awami League to go to power again, BNP and other opposition parties not expecting a fair election under current Government and they want a caretaker government to conduct the election, on the other hand US firmly underlined the importance of a free and fair election by upholding the democratic process.
Rokan's Journal 