NEWS reports said the government has launched fresh joint forces operation to arrest opposition leaders and workers particularly BNP, Jamaat men ahead of the municipal election to be held in December next. The report quoted party leaders as blaming the government for the joint forces operations sending panic across the country and arresting their leaders and workers to bar them from municipal elections. Leaders of the left leaning parties have also complaint of such arrests and harassment of common people in the name of the joint drive to arrest miscreants.
The New Nation reported the arrest of over 1300 opposition leaders and workers over the past two days from Friday in 13 districts while another English daily posted the figure at over 1500. As it is, police have however down played the arrest saying these were regular drives against criminals. But the complaints of the major opposition parties outside the government is quite serious that their potential candidates were being held and chased from homes to bar them from contesting the municipal election. The government is doing it as it has decided to hold the local bodies polls this time on party basis using the party symbols.
Allegedly, the joint forces including members of police, Border Guard Bangladesh, Armed Police Battalion, Rapid Action Battalion and the Coast Guard are arresting opposition workers on suspicion of their involvement in mischiefs. Although such direct and drastic involvement of police forces in suppressing opposition is unbelievable.
Meanwhile, the ruling party Awami League has already started election campaigns to get their potential nominees win elections. The Awami League led government recently amended the law for holding all local elections on partisan lines. It was non-partisan election until now to allow local people to elect popular civil society men to local bodies to take care of local development issues and solve other problems without involving party politics. The government has not only made the local body election now on party basis, it is moreover barring the opposition leaders and workers to throw challenge to the ruling party nominated candidates. The move came after the major opposition made it clear that they would not leave the field free for the ruling party to win election without contest.
So the way the government is arranging the local election to go its way, will bring in more conflict, antagonism and violence.
We cannot believe democratic politics can be so arrogant and so one-sided. The government seems so sure that every undemocratic act will go unchallenged.
