People want a credible election

Voting day is finally here and the 11th parliamentary election is being held today under a partisan government. The people want nothing more than exercising their right to vote in a festive, peaceful environment. However, given what we have seen so far, I think proving the election's credibility in the country and to the outside world may be challenging.

From the very beginning of election season, a level playing field has been missing. The opposition alliance's candidates, their supporters, and even the independent candidates were threatened by ruling party activists as well as members of law enforcement agencies.

What we had observed in the previous elections under a caretaker government was that law enforcement agencies and officials of local administration played a neutral role. Those elections were acceptable to the voters. But this time we saw many print and electronic media publishing biased news in favour of the incumbent government.

However, despite all this, one would still like to hope that today's election will be violence-free. We hope people will be able to cast their votes without being intimidated. We want a free, fair, credible and inclusive election above all.