Political parties should offer a realistic vision

Without our knowing it, or in any way being conscious of it, a strikingly radical metamorphosis has taken place in the composition and make-up of the electorate. Roughly speaking, there are 32 per cent first-time voters making for a total of 2.3crore. The number of women voters exceed by more than 12lakh that of their male counterpart. First- and second-time voters comprise more than 50 per cent of the electorate. Those who have become voters after the birth of Bangladesh constitute more than 50 per cent of the electoral roll.
The political parties on their campaign trails do not appear to have given any consideration to the changed electoral landscape splendidly featured by a surge of young voters. Whereas the AL, to some extent, has been cognisant of, and somewhat responsive to, the new complexion in the electoral demography, the BNP has been less so. On the whole, the parties' campaigning style is manifestly stuck in the old mold. They offer no vision, or an apology for it at best, before the younger generation constituting at least 50 per cent of the voters of whom again 32 per cent are being voters for the first time with, needless to say, a chest full of hopes and dreams for a better future.
Running along this manifestly old style campaigning is the promises galore being spewed out right, left and centre through the party manifestoes and public utterances of the leaders of major political parties. From bridges, culverts and roads through academic and professional institutions to reclaiming canals and dredging silted rivers, you name it and that is in their lists of commitments. As though promises alone will win votes making a short shrift of the voters having wizened by experience. As if there is a hidden treasure from which ample resource will flow to bank-roll all kinds of commitments, regardless of their feasibility. Have they done the homework to assess the internal capabilities -- institutional, monetary, social and technical -- to back up their promises into realisation? That is the vision they have been found wanting in projecting; only a bundle of promises hardly mean anything.
Little wonder, representative reactions from 32 per cent of the first-time voters point to a mood of skepticism among them, and lest their pessimism take hold of their minds, the contending political parties must present a concrete vision of what they plan to achieve within five years and how.