Sushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Sujan), a civil society platform, on Sunday urged the political parties, whichever wins the next parliamentary polls, to materialise rightly the pledges as made in the election manifesto.
However, the civil society platform also mentioned that after assuming state power, no political parties in the country have entirely fulfilled the promises made in their manifestos so far.
Sujan made the call at a press conference titled 'Manifestos of Different Political Parties' arranged at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity (DRU) ahead of the 11th parliamentary elections.
Speaking at the programme, Sujan president M Hafizuddin Khan said, "The political parties declare their manifestos before every election ... but they completely forget the pledges they made in their manifesto after winning the election."
Political will power is required to implement the promises made in the manifesto, he said.
Talking about the national election, he said, "Peoples' confidence in the Election Commission (EC) is not up to the mark and we don't see any sign of increasing the trust level in the coming days."
Referring to the attacks on the opposition candidates and interruption on their electioneering, Mr Khan said hopefully, the situation will change after deployment of armed forces.
"We all want to establish democracy and governance in the country and to do so, a free, fair and credible election is a must," he, also an adviser to a caretaker government, added.
Sujan secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar said utmost emphasis should be given at this moment to establish peoples' right to franchise freely.
If it is ensured, political parties will have to go to the voters to inform them about their (parties) successes and failures, he said.
Besides, he said, "The election won't be fair with participation of all political parties only; polls would be called fair if the voters can cast their votes in favour of their preferred candidate in a peaceful manner."
Commenting that the people want guarantee to cast their votes in the next elections, Mr Majumder said the commission along with its other stakeholders will carry out respective duties correctly to guarantee peoples' right to vote.
Comparing manifestos of different parties, Sujan associate coordinator Nasar Amin said though there is rivalry and disagreement among the political parties over so many things, unanimity about some crucial issues was also observed in their manifestos.
Most of the parties are agreed about ensuring independence of the judiciary to strengthen the country's democracy and governance.
They also showed similar thoughts in their manifestos about eradicating economic and social discrimination, administrative and financial decentralisation, uprooting corruption and militancy, tackling the challenges of climate change, and increased use of information technology, he added.
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