UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed hope that the next general election in Bangladesh would be a participatory one. The UN Chief expressed his optimism during a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the UN Headquarters on Thursday. But the prevailing situation in the country is not supportive of credible and participatory elections.
We have parliamentary democracy but the election is planned to be that of an autocracy. The elected government will remain in power and the seats of the lawmakers will not be declared vacant, and the parliament will not be dissolved. So the hope expressed by the UN Secretary General is merely a pious wish.
We note that the UN from time to time renewed their call for fair elections in the years. Last week, US Ambassador to Bangladesh Marcia Bernicat underscored the need for holding a free, fair and inclusive election for democracy while the European Union opted for inclusive, transparent and credible national elections that can also ensure economic stability.
But the reality of our politics is that; the government is fully bureaucratically controlled and politically isolated from the people. The particular cabal of retired bureaucrats with the help from some outside encouragement is pursuing a blueprint for engineering the election results in favour of the most unpopular and a failed government. So there exists a non-political conspiracy to defy and deny the people of their right to choose their government. This coterie of anti-people and thoroughly corrupt bureaucrats is pushing the country to civil war against the government.
The government itself is a prisoner in the hands of a few unscrupulous retired bureaucrats. This reality has to be recognised before anybody can hope for fair election in Bangladesh.
Our country is in a grave crisis when the political government is not political and it needs help from friends outside to run a political government politically. Bangladesh is a victim of malicious conspiracy in the absence of competent political leadership.
