AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader formally inaugurated the selling of the nomination forms, reports UNB.
The party has fixed Tk 30,000 as the price for each nomination paper.
Yesterday, the Election Commission said that it is likely to announce the polls schedule on February 17 for 50 parliamentary seats exclusively reserved for women.
The reserved seats' distribution will reflect the seat share in the directly elected 300 constituencies. According to the proportional representation in the parliament, Awami League will get women MPs from 43 reserved seats, Jatiya Party from 4 seats, BNP from one, and others will fill out the last two.
Out of the 300 parliamentary constituencies across the country, Awami League won in 259 constituencies, while Jatiya Party in 20 seats, BNP in six seats, Workers' Party in three constituencies, Gano Forum, Jasod and Bikalpadhara each in two seats, Tarikat Federation and JP (Manju) each in one seat in the recently held 11th general election.
Besides, independent candidates were elected in three constituencies in the polls held on December 30 last.
One remaining constituency Gaibanda-3 will go to polls on January 27, after the election there was postponed earlier following the death of a candidate.
The Election Commission has a legal obligation to arrange the polls to the 50 reserved seats within 90 days after the gazette of general election result is published.
The directly-elected members of parliament are the voters of the election.
If the number of nominated candidates by a political party is equal to its reserved seats, the contenders will be declared elected unopposed immediate after the last date for withdrawal of candidacy.
Meanwhile, the Jatiya Party will start selling nomination paper from tomorrow for its four reserved seats, sources at the party told The Daily Star this afternoon.
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Events leading to the schedule announcement of our 12th parliamentary election appear to be eerily similar to those before the previous two much discredited and disputed elections. This time, apart from serious disagreements among the most potent challengers centring the election management process, the Election Commission's consistently inconsistent statements and decisions show that it lacks the courage and capacity to act decisively and independently. Otherwise, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal's address to the nation would not have been full of contradictions.
CEC Awal admitted that "the EC has been noticing differences among the political leadership regarding the polls, particularly on the issue of the institutional system of elections," and that "consensus and solutions are needed," but announced the voting schedule without any resolution of the disputes. He then expects the nation to trust him when he says, "We believe the upcoming polls will be free and fair, impartial, participatory, and peaceful."
He said, for a free, fair, inclusive, and festive election, there is a need for a conducive political environment, but leaves the responsibility for creating it on the parties entangled in an existential fight. He again contradicted himself when he said "... if conflict and violence take place due to differences, instability can be created, which will have a negative impact on the election process," but in the same breath urged the people "to go to polling centres in festivity and exercise their voting rights freely, keeping aside all concerns, anxieties, and discomforts." The CEC then reminded the nation that "meaningful competition is an essential element of an election," but didn't explain how the next election could be meaningfully competitive without participation of the ruling party's main challenger and several other political parties.
Other events that have proved the EC's inability and partisan behaviour towards the ruling party include its failure to deal with gross irregularities in local government and parliamentary by-elections, granting registration to two unknown and dubious parties, declining registrations for a number of well-known parties on shallow grounds, and entertaining discredited election observers associated with the ruling party—who brought in fake foreign observers—and enlisting them as local poll monitors despite earlier rejection.
Such inconsistencies are nothing new. The EC has repeatedly said one thing and did something other than that, if not the opposite. A more disturbing trend has also emerged, in which we see the EC secretary cancelling out the CEC's observations. The most recent one is secretary Md Jahangir Alam's assertion a week ago that a conducive environment to announce the schedule of the next general election exists, though the CEC in his address to the nation decried its absence and urged all parties to reach a consensus. One may wonder whether the CEC would exercise his authority over the administration and replace the secretary who is clearly out of line. Former election commissioner late Mahbub Talukder's book, Nirbachonnama, bears the testimony of how the EC secretariat served its political masters instead of the constitutional body.
Other events that have proved the EC's inability and partisan behaviour towards the ruling party include its failure to deal with gross irregularities in local government and parliamentary by-elections, granting registration to two unknown and dubious parties, declining registrations for a number of well-known parties on shallow grounds, and entertaining discredited election observers associated with the ruling party—who brought in fake foreign observers—and enlisting them as local poll monitors despite earlier rejection. These events suggest that the EC is either giving in to pressure from some powerful quarters, or it lacks the required skills and independence to regulate the crucial elements of a genuine election.
Ignoring substantial opposition to holding a one-sided election, the EC has argued that it has a constitutional obligation to hold the election in time. However, the commission has conveniently forgotten that it also has a constitutional obligation "to ensure effective participation of the people" (Article 11 in Part II of the constitution, under the title "Fundamental Principles of the State Policy"). Footnotes in the most updated version of the constitution—available on the official website of the law ministry—reminds us that the part about the "effective participation of the people" was omitted by the fourth amendment and again inserted (following a national consensus to revert to a parliamentary system) by the 12th amendment in 1991. Should we be sacrificing effective participation of the people in the name of constitutionalism, albeit, which has been amended (by the 15th amendment) allegedly in an unconstitutional manner?
Effective participation of the people is not only a national requirement, but an international one too. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, states, "The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures."
On November 16, 2023, the global body representing parliamentarians of the world, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) published a new tool called the Indicators for Democratic Parliaments, which offers a new approach to measuring parliamentary capacity, resilience, and performance. It devised 25 indicators to evaluate the parliament's own strengths and weaknesses, and one of those indicators is electoral integrity. In judging the electoral integrity, IPU sets the criteria as such: "In practice, elections take place regularly. A significant proportion of citizens participate in these elections. Elections are competitive and citizens' fundamental rights are respected before, during and after election day."
Rescheduling the national election is neither impossible nor without precedence. It was rescheduled, though by seven days only, in the not-too-distant past, in 2018. If parties can agree on the way forward, buying some additional time for holding the election is also possible, as the counting of 90 days can begin afresh if the parliament is dissolved. It is true that the history of dialogue between the two archrivals—Awami League and BNP—is an unhappy one, but there were exceptions, too, such as during the 1991 amendment for returning to the parliamentary form of government.
It may sound superstitious, but the day fixed for voting is a Sunday, the same day of the week the last two sham elections—January 5, 2014 and December 30, 2018—were held on. The last time the people in Bangladesh freely voted was not on a Sunday, but on a Monday. We need a genuine election, not another sham one.
Kamal Ahmedis an independent journalist. His X handle is @ahmedka1
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
Follow The Daily Star Opinion on Facebook for the latest opinions, commentaries and analyses by experts and professionals. To contribute your article or letter to The Daily Star Opinion, see our guidelines for submission.
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The ruling Awami League has formed "National Election Steering Committee" ahead of the 11th parliamentary election likely to be held at the end of this year.
Awami League President Sheikh Hasina has been made chairman while HT Imam, a member of the party's advisory council, made as co-chairman of the steering committee, according to a press release of the party.
Apart from this, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader has also been made member secretary of the committee.
The members of Awami League advisory council, central executive committee and presidents and secretaries of its different front and associate bodies have been made members of the committee, the release read.
HT Imam was made co-chairman of the AL election steering committee formed ahead the national election January 5 in 2014.
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Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda today said that the commission will not take any fresh initiative to ensure participation of all political parties in the upcoming 11th parliamentary polls.
He came up with the announcement while talking to reporters at Brahmanbaria district administration office this noon.
All political parties have been urged to participate in the next JS polls during the dialogue with political parties and other stakeholders that began on July 31, 2017.
“We hope all political parties will contest the upcoming polls and we urged the parties to do so,” he said.
“So, we wont’s take any new initiative regarding the participation of all political parties,” Huda said.
The CEC claimed that each and every election has been free, fair and acceptable since his taking to the office.
“Even you (journalists) couldn’t raise a question regarding the impartiality of the elections as there wasn’t any scope to do so,” he also said.
He assured that impending Nasirnagar by-polls will also be free and fair.
Hinting at Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad’s remarks that he has no confidence on the incumbent EC, the CEC said, “We have been carrying out our responsibilities impartially. Only he (Ershad) can say why he made such comment.”
The commission is working to regain the trust of the voters and political parties, he went on saying.
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It is the month of December, our victory month, and this is when we remember all the martyrs and the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who fought all his life to establish a democratic, free and just society. The Six Point Movement spearheaded by Bangabandhu included two important issues: (1) economic emancipation and (2) establishment of democracy under universal suffrage. But 47 years later, we are still struggling to put ourselves on the path of democracy which, as I understand, is the underlying spirit of our freedom.
Democracy cannot be established without election of representatives by the electors and election is the process that allows electors to translate their will into desired results using the little paper that we know as the ballot. Therefore, voters or electors are the building block of any democracy. When Churchill talked about the power of the little man (voter) while paying tribute to democracy, he perhaps took it for granted that the little man would be free from intimidation and fear, that they would be free to vote for their candidate and that their vote would be counted fairly.
But that is not the case in some democratic countries such as Bangladesh. We are still struggling to find the methodology that would determine the composition of the government during election time.
Bangladesh has made significant achievements in almost all sectors and continues to make progress in the economic, infrastructure, and health and sanitation sectors. Bangladesh, in the last four decades, has made enviable economic progress with the aspiration to become a developed country by 2041. The country has one of the largest young, educated and high-school educated populations. It has also progressed tremendously in terms of gender equality and fulfilled the MDGs set by the United Nations. The current government has much to its credit and this was also made possible due to the positive contributions of past governments. There is no doubt that Bangladesh has been successful in branding itself as a country that has attained rapid progress.
But the areas where we have not succeeded are good governance and institutionalisation of a methodical electoral process. Bangladesh's electoral process is one that has been occasionally abused. It has strong electoral laws but weak implementation in most cases; thus elections have remained far from "genuine", "free", "fair" and "credible".
Although the country has an independent and legally strong Election Commission (EC), most of the ECs have failed to perform in their role as was expected from this very important institution. Most of the ECs have suffered from a trust deficit which has affected their performance. The EC has not been able to come out of that spell of distrust. Its performance can be judged by looking at the last 10 parliamentary elections, of which only four were considered to be genuine and acceptable both at home and abroad. These four elections were held under the caretaker government. The remaining six did not meet the international standards as they were held under ruling parties. A couple of these elections were highly controversial. Of these, the 2014 election was termed by international comparative political scientists such as Pippa Norris, Professor of Comparative Politics, Kennedy School of Harvard University, as a "failed election" (The Electoral Integrity Project, Pippa Norris et al). Both the government and opposition political parties were held responsible for that election and the onus was mainly on the opposition party. A major party not taking part in an election has obvious effects in upholding a democracy.
We need to establish a strong political culture and the responsibility rests on the major political parties. They need to set visible democratic norms within their parties and make an effort to select candidates through an "inclusive method" rather than an "elitist method".
Nevertheless there are other critical institutional issues of electoral governance that have to be addressed such as politicisation of the EC. These issues need to be looked into if we want to have free, fair, and credible elections.
Bangladesh can hardly afford another "flawed" or "failed" election which would seriously damage its international image that it has so painstakingly cultivated thus far. What we need is a process that enables "good" elections on a consistent basis so that the "little man" can freely exercise his/her will which is fairly and accurately represented in the results. Repeated "failed" or "flawed" elections will not only tarnish Bangladesh's international image but also give space for "extra-state forces" to rise which may jeopardise the progress we have achieved thus far.
The upcoming election will be a test for the current government as elections, for the first time in our electoral history, are being held with a full cabinet and 350 members of Parliament in place. It's the government that has to prove that an acceptable election can be held under the system. On the other hand, the EC has to prove that it can deliver under whichever government is in place. What needs to be taken note of is that inclusive elections cannot be competitive unless all parties have the opportunity to field contestable candidates.
The nation is eagerly hoping to see an acceptable, free, fair and credible election in the coming weeks, which is an essential element of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the UN.
M Sakhawat Hussain, PhD, is a former election commissioner of Bangladesh and honorary fellow of South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance, North South University.
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The Awami League yesterday decided not to field party candidates in any local government polls as a measure to stop infighting between AL leaders.
The infighting worsened after the party decided to nominate candidates in the recently held national election and allowed their party colleagues to compete against them.
The new decision will be effective in the polls to Cumilla and Mymensingh city corporations, which are slated for March 9, said sources.
No candidates will get the party symbol "boat".
The decision was made at an emergency meeting of AL Central Working Committee, the highest decision-making body of the party, at the Gono Bhaban. AL President Sheikh Hasina chaired the meeting.
The ruling party convened the meeting to discuss the way out of the intra-party feuds.
As the BNP and some other parties boycotted the polls, the party adopted a strategy to make the election appear participatory and to increase turnout. This ultimately led to violence between AL leaders in many places.
According to insiders, at the beginning of the meeting, Hasina asked party leaders to come up their recommendations on how to minimise the infighting and party's role in upcoming elections to upazila parishads, which will be held in phases. The polls are likely to begin in March.
AL Joint General Secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim started first with his proposal for not providing party electoral symbol in local government elections.
He also recommended holding extended meetings in the districts where AL's internal feuds are intense and said the party should take all-out measures so that the infighting does not intensify further, said sources.
Almost all other party leaders echoed Nasim.
Some of them also suggested that the government take stern action against the arsonists to stop the recurrence of arson attacks, said sources.
At the one stage of the meeting, Hasina, also the prime minister, brought up the US presidential election and said the presidential election between George W Bush and Al Gore was questionable, said meeting insiders.
She said Donald Trump also did not recognise Joe Biden's victory.
Those who are preaching good elections to Bangladesh are mum on the issues of the US presidential election, Hasina said, according to meeting sources.
At the end of the meeting, AL chief Hasina decided to take "boat" out of the local government polls.
The AL started fielding candidates for the local body polls with its electoral symbol "boat" from 2015 after five laws related to union parishads, upazila parishads, municipalities and city corporations were amended, allowing party-backed candidates in local government bodies.
The meeting also assigned eight divisional committees to meet the leaders of the districts where there are intra-party feuds. It also decided to hold extended meetings there to resolve the problem.
While briefing reporters about the outcome of the meeting, AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader said the party would not allocate "boat" to any candidates in upazila parishad elections.
He, however, said the final decision would be made at a joint meeting of party's local government and parliamentary nomination boards.