Making national elections meaningful

Although he has stated the obvious, we welcome the remarks of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) that the next general election would be meaningless without BNP's participation. We want all political parties to participate in the election. However, beyond stating the obvious, the office of the EC will have to play a crucial role in the upcoming polls in that it must ensure the holding of a free and fair election by ensuring a level playing field. Confidence will have to be generated in all political parties by the EC, by deeds and not words.

However, as the matter stands now, the BNP chairpersons has put forward six conditions for participating in the election which have added a new twist in the current discourse on election. It could well be a tactic and these demands could be used as bargaining chips. Whatever it may be, the BNP should not forget the outcome of such demands in the past and what political dividends it got.

We hope that BNP will learn from the mistake it made then. By boycotting the elections on the issue of a non-partisan caretaker government, it had abdicated the responsibility that falls on it as a political party to represent a significant portion of the electorate in the parliament, thus depriving them of their right to vote. And that had done nothing to serve the cause of democracy in the country.

For its part the AL must realise that an election such as of 2014 will lack moral grounding. It must also help in generating confidence in the opposition by providing political space to the BNP to congregate and hold rallies, which is not the case now. As the ruling party, the primary responsibility falls on the AL to ensure conducive conditions for a participatory election.