Demand voiced by 40 noted BD citizens on polls merits review

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On Sunday the 17th of December 40 noted citizens including former member of careteker government, former judge of the  Supreme Court, senior lawyers, human rights activists, university teachers, journalists and members of the intelligentsia urged the government and the Election Commission to dissolve Parliament and organise election anew to make it participatory.

They stated that the election, as scheduled now, is one-sides and precludes the participation of the opposition. Opposition activists have been arrested, harassed and sentenced in a controversial manner and driven out of the electoral process, they said observing that only ruling party candidates, their dummies and pro-government parties will contest the polls making the proper choosing of people's representatives difficult.

The eminent citizens also said that the last two general elections showed that government elected thorough one-sided polls turns unaccountable and the administration subservient to the government.

The joint statement has come at a time when Bangladesh has turned into a hotbed of rivalries of global and regional powers which have become active to assert themselves from their own perspectives.

While the United States and the European Union have worked for years to support the organisation of free and fair elections threatening action against undermining democracy, two regional powers who have their own spheres of interest in and influence on the government have said that the matter should be left to Bangladesh and its people to decide. Another global power which seeks to counter the US because of its support to Ukraine, wants to use the hotbed to recreate its own space in the Indo-Pacific region, has in way been supporting the government in power by accusing the US of trying to instigate an Arab Spring-like situation in Bangladesh. Russia had earlier accused the US Ambassador to Babgladesh Peter Haas of interfering in the internal affairs of Bangladesh.

The situation on the ground is that the ruling party has alongside official candidates fielded its dummy candidates in addition to arranging to cede seats to pro-government parties to manage the election while the main opposition BNP and at least a handful of major parties have not been in the fray. A third one-sided election would significantly erode democracy from this land.

The Russian Foreign Ministry statement has also made mention of possible Western sanctions in different forms after the present election. This issue has been discussed at Bangladesh's diplomatic and political levels with apprehension of serious disruption of economic activities in a worst case scenario.

Keeping all these currents and cross currents in view, the joint statement of 40 eminent citizens possibly merits review and to be acted upon to resolve the issue of holding a free, fair and participatory election. Such an election will not only remove the worries mentioned above but also help restore the confidence of the internal political stake holders on each other and give the people peace of mind to pursue their economic activities without unnecessary tension.