Though national elections are drawing closer, with less than two weeks to go, the contesting political parties have yet to unveil their election manifestos. The candidates, however, have made various commitments to voters. To what extent they will be able to fulfil the commitments, if elected, is too early to tell. What is now critical is that, without a clearly stated manifesto, most of the commitments make little sense, as some are hyperbolic and some are misleading. No party has a magic wand to address all the problems in the country. So, commitments need to be realistic and rationally ambitious.
A political manifesto is a document published by a political party before a general election, setting out the policies they would follow if they won. Manifestos contain a description of the wider narrative a party seeks to convey to the electorate, along with the background of its policy choices, according to the UK-based Institute for Government. So, party manifestos are official statements of a party's policy positions, listing the issues it intends to address once elected. In other words, it is a list of promises to the voters.
Theoretically, the objective of a party manifesto is to 'announce its path forward to the voters.' Manifestos in a parliamentary democracy provide 'a standard for performance evaluation, articulate the party's policy stances, critique opponents' failures, and appeal to citizens for votes.' It also includes descriptions of success stories of the parties in power. Thus, publishing election manifestos is a serious business.
The history of election manifestos in the country goes back more than five decades. The contesting parties in the first direct general election in Pakistan in 1970 released their manifestos to draw voters' attention. The main contest, however, took place between the All-Pakistan Awami League, headed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), under the leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The Awami League was based in the eastern wing of the country, and the PPP was based in the western wing. Both parties released their election manifestos before the historic election on December 7, 1970. In the manifesto, Awami League emphasised introducing a federal governance system and curbing the illicit transfer of resources from East Pakistan to West Pakistan. The PPP, on the other hand, stressed the need to establish an Islamic value-based, non-discriminatory socio-economic system. Once the results were unveiled, it showed that the Awami League won 167 seats out of 169 in East Pakistan, and the PPP won 88 seats out of 144 in West Pakistan. Though Awami League won 39.20 per cent of the votes and won a clear majority in all of Pakistan, PPP leader Bhutto and the army rulers were not ready to accept the result, making the post-election situation complex. The ultimate result was nine months of the Liberation War and the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent country on December 16, 1971.
In the last five and a half decades, Bangladesh has held 12 national general elections. The first was held on 7 March 1973, and the last on January 7, 2024. In these elections, a number of contesting parties placed their manifestos pledging many things they would do for the greater interests of the country and people. Nevertheless, to what extent the parties elected to form the governments implemented the manifestos is a matter of in-depth research.
Written manifestos of elections are part of the country's political history. There is, however, no comprehensive archive of these manifestos, and it is not easy to find the manifestos of political parties over the decades. As a result, an important source of the electoral history is not within the reach of people or anyone interested in working on it. In a digital era, it is also not difficult to preserve these documents electronically, in addition to physical conservation.
It is expected that parties contesting in the upcoming 13th general elections will publish their written manifestos as soon as possible. It is necessary for the voters to go through the documents and compare various aspects of the commitments. A new generation of voters will also cast their votes in the election for the first time and their number is not small. They will not rely on the verbal assurance of the candidates and want to check the written commitments of the parties. So, manifestos are necessary for them, for all the voters.
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