Bangladesh: Another dateline to overcome stand-off

The Election Commission (EC) in Bangladesh, in a fresh announcement on Sunday (November 23) has rescheduled the dateline for the upcoming parliamentary and upzila elections. New polling date has been announced as December 29, 2008 for parliament and January 22, 2009 for upazila poll. Originally, the elections were to be held on December 18, December 28 respectively.

In Bangladesh, the parliamentary election is a long waited political issue to be resolved. The normal course of holding election was scheduled on January 22 of 2007 that was later postponed due to unacceptable political situation and state of emergency that came down on the nation on January 11, 2007. This date is popularly known as one/eleven.

Through this political mechanism, an extra democratic military backed interim government came into power and expressed several commitments to the nation. Holding of a credible and acceptable general election by December 2008 was the most important commitment of this military backed interim government.

As of the commitment, the government prepared for the national election along with local body polls within the committed time frame. But the political parties, especially the big two – Bangladesh Awami League (AL) and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) – came up with several demands and conditions. As a matter of fact, the caretaker authority also opted for hard bargain which make the politicians confused about the intention of the military administration.

Finally, Bangladesh got the dateline of parliament election on December 18, 2008. Schedule was also declared by the Election Commission dating November 13 for the last date of submitting candidature by any individual on be half of political party he belongs to or as an independent candidate. Awami League accepted this dateline but put some conditions to the EC. BNP showed their unwillingness of participation in parliament election as of the Dec 18 poll and put forward a seven-point demand list to the government, which led a stand-off for holding parliamentary election in Bangladesh.

It should be mentioned here that strengthening local government was one of the demands from the civil society for many years. But it was not properly addressed by the politicians. That is why holding local government poll including once suspended upazila (sub-district) council election was also a commitment of the interim government. To meet up this commitment, the EC announced the schedule of upazila election as well.

As of the new plan, which has been rescheduled for the 3rd time on November 23, parliamentary elections will be held on December 29, 2008 and upazila poll on January 22, 2009. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) announced these fresh schedules after a hectic 3-day parley with AL and BNP. With this in all probability, it has ended the impasse over the polls.

In a jam-packed press conference at the EC Secretariat in the evening of Nov 23, the CEC ATM Shamsul Huda said hopefully the timings of this time will be acceptable to all political parties and alliances, and the political parties will begin full-fledged electoral activities from now on. The new dates are the upshot of the last few days’ hectic negotiations between the EC, caretaker government and political parties. This is the third revision to the elections schedules unveiled on November 2. Originally, the parliamentary election was to be held on December 18 and upazila on December 28.

According to the new timetable, the closing date for filing candidature in the parliamentary election is November 30 and in upazila polls is December 13. The applications for the parliamentary election will be scrutinised on December 3-4 and upazila on December 17-19. While end date for withdrawal candidature from the parliamentary race is December 11 and from upazila election is December 31.

Terming the schedules a ‘reasonable solution’ to the stalemate, CEC Huda said there is no room for doubt or uncertainty over voting. “We’ll do whatever it takes to hold free and fair elections,” he added. The commission, however, did not meet the call from BNP and allies for scrapping of the provision that authorises EC to cancel candidatures; this point was included in the seven-point demand. CEC observed that the EC should retain the power to resist electoral offences like snatching ballot papers and occupying polling stations.

Press reports said Chief Adviser (CA) Fakhruddin Ahmed called the CEC and expressed satisfaction with the announcement. He also thanked the election commissioners for hammering out a ‘resolution of the stand-off’.

Just before the 3rd time rescheduling, the EC sat separately with BNP and AL leaders again to make sure that they are agree on the election days. In the fresh schedules, the EC has pretty much accepted the political parties’ demand for the upazila election to be delayed for a month.

Local press report also mentioned that the commission had to press the administration hard for deferral of the local polls for over three weeks, and lifting of the state of emergency after December 11, the deadline for withdrawing candidature in the general election.

Earlier, the election commission had already changed twice the dates in its original schedules for filing, scrutiny and withdrawal of nominations. The polling days were left unchanged on both occasions. That was done by EC mainly for the demand of BNP.

On November 17, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the caretaker administration to meet its four-point demand. That was a step-down of BNP from their seven-point charter. She demanded that the state of emergency should be lifted, some ‘objectionable’ clauses in the Representation of the People Order (RPO) done away with, upazila election deferred for a month, and the national polls be rescheduled so the hajis (Muslim pilgrim) can cast their votes. Things began to change for the betterment after the former prime minister announced last Thursday that they would join the election if it is held on December 28 or onwards.

Both the parties – BNP and AL – are yet to react on the latest announcement by the commission. A meeting of AL and its alliance partners is schedule for November 24. After the meting a formal reaction can be expected from AL on their strategy, while the political observers are presuming for a positive one.