Acceptability of the verdict of general election
Monday, 17 November 2008
Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed, the head of the Caretaker Government (CTG) expressed clearly at the BIMSTEC meeting New Delhi that the forthcoming Parliamentary Election (the election) will be held on December 18, 2008 in accordance with the road map. Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Chairperson of Bangladesh Awami League (AL) is rigorously demanding that the election must be held on 18 December, 2008 as was stipulated earlier, but former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, the Chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has demanded that the election should be delayed by four weeks (reported in Bengali dailies on November 15, 08).
The discord between AL and BNP is typical, not alien to us. They have never been able to unite on any vital national issues. Continuous disagreement on one pretext or the other has made the people concerned. We would urge the CTG to give this issue most priority and importance to analyse the motive behind it. If the demand of BNP is found to be bonafide, the demand must be accepted because a delayed election would be far better than an election not participated by all the political parties, particularly the four-party alliance.
In the event of an election without participation of BNP, then the newly-elected government would be facing serious allegations from the four-party alliance in respect of its acceptability. This alliance would start political agitations, taking us back to the pavilion. This will also provide huge arms to BNP to fire on the deposed and incumbent governments which would be accepted by many that it was a one-sided election and the validity of such a claim would be generally accepted. Delay of one month would not cause as any serious harm rather it would provide a solid basis for the election to be acceptable and sustainable.
We would urge the CTG to consider the demand of the BNP to delay the election by one month, on one hand, and to complete the election of the local government on the scheduled time, on the other. Here no demand could be considered from the Awami League or Bangladesh Nationalist Party because the holding of this election has long been demanded by the people. Any delay in this would open the gate of destruction of the Upazila system itself because all the Upazila Chairman will belong to the party which would win the parliament election. When Parliamentary election would be held prior to Upazila election, then the scope for exercising influence by the newly-elected government would not be there.
Shah Jahan
Dhaka
The discord between AL and BNP is typical, not alien to us. They have never been able to unite on any vital national issues. Continuous disagreement on one pretext or the other has made the people concerned. We would urge the CTG to give this issue most priority and importance to analyse the motive behind it. If the demand of BNP is found to be bonafide, the demand must be accepted because a delayed election would be far better than an election not participated by all the political parties, particularly the four-party alliance.
In the event of an election without participation of BNP, then the newly-elected government would be facing serious allegations from the four-party alliance in respect of its acceptability. This alliance would start political agitations, taking us back to the pavilion. This will also provide huge arms to BNP to fire on the deposed and incumbent governments which would be accepted by many that it was a one-sided election and the validity of such a claim would be generally accepted. Delay of one month would not cause as any serious harm rather it would provide a solid basis for the election to be acceptable and sustainable.
We would urge the CTG to consider the demand of the BNP to delay the election by one month, on one hand, and to complete the election of the local government on the scheduled time, on the other. Here no demand could be considered from the Awami League or Bangladesh Nationalist Party because the holding of this election has long been demanded by the people. Any delay in this would open the gate of destruction of the Upazila system itself because all the Upazila Chairman will belong to the party which would win the parliament election. When Parliamentary election would be held prior to Upazila election, then the scope for exercising influence by the newly-elected government would not be there.
Shah Jahan
Dhaka