Thursday 28th of March 2024
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Headlines : * 16 new Covid cases reported in country   * Japan to provide 2,294 m Japanese Yen to Bangladesh; deals signed   * BNP wants to nullify meaning of independence: Obaidul Quader   * Rain with temporary gusty wind likely over Country   * 3 die as bus hits auto-rickshaw in M`sing   * 15 ferries, 20 launches to ply on Daulatdia-Paturia route during Eid   * Six houses gutted in Rangamati fire   * Baltimore divers recover 2 bodies from harbor after bridge collapse   * Bangladeshi youth shot dead by police in US   * Govt to import 50,000 metric tons of onion from India  

   Op-ed
Where is the end of the death march in election violence?
  Date : 28-03-2024

Rasheduzzaman Rashed: An important part of democracy is the electoral system, that is, the responsibility and duty of the people to elect their representatives by voting.  Blood was shed in Narsingdi, Comilla, Cox`s Bazar and Chittagong in the recent second phase of Union Parishad elections.  Seven have died; Election-Answer Five more.  There are allegations of irregularities such as ballot snatching, seal ink crisis, ruling party leaders and activists using their power to vote for others.  This is not the last time the election field has been bloodied by attacks and clashes.  Candidates and their supporters, police, journalists and the general public were injured.  News of the deaths of ten people in two rounds of elections has been published in the media.  The tears of the family of the deceased tell us which way the election situation in rural Bengal?  If you have to give your life to get elected, no one will want that election.  If many elections are held in our country in the future, then the common people are very worried about how many lives will have to be given in those elections.  The Left Democratic Alliance, the BNP-led United Front is not participating in the UP elections.  As a result, the power of the ruling Awami League candidates is one-sided.  It is as if the situation is being created to get elected as soon as you get nominated with money.  Uncontested elections have also taken place in many places.  Fighting is raging in some areas over rebel candidates who have been denied nominations, and there have been occasional clashes and casualties.  Where is the end of the ongoing death march in election violence?  Its beard cannot be avoided by the Election Commission.  Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda has said, "It is not possible to stop the election violence by going from house to house."  As a result, the failure of the Election Commission on the electoral system is starting to raise questions among the people, why I can not vote?  The Election Commission cannot answer this question properly.  We can`t all know that.  A little analysis of how the local people`s representatives of our country do public service shows that when the whole world came to a standstill in the Corona epidemic, the government tried its best to reduce the Corona infection in Bangladesh through lockdown.  Unemployed people were finding it difficult to survive in that lockdown.  Because they do not have work to eat?  When helpless, impoverished and uprooted people are suffering, social organizations and political organizations extend a helping hand to those helpless people.  The government, through local people`s representatives, provided relief to the unemployed in Corona.  But as proof of how the local people`s representative is doing public service, the relief oil of the poor has been godowned under the leader`s bed and someone has hidden a sack of rice in the pond.  We have seen such bizarre news in different media.  The question is why the people`s representatives will steal the relief of the people?  Whom do we bring to power as a people`s representative?  Do they really come to power through popular vote?  How much is the arrangement for the general public to choose the people`s representative of their choice?  In order to find answers to these questions, one has to analyze the Election Commission and the electoral system of Bangladesh.  In which way is Bangladesh democracy in fifty years of independence?  Democracy is the name given to the advanced level of capitalist rule.  As a result, discussions and criticisms are going on about that democracy.  After the fall of the dictatorial government of General Ershad in 1991, we saw fair and neutral elections in Bangladesh.  After that 5 national elections were held in 1996, 2001, 2008, 2014 and 2016.  Of these, elections were held in 2014 without voting and in 2016 elections were rigged.  It is not desirable for a state to deprive the people of the right to vote.  The fundamental rights of the people will not be guaranteed until the revolutionary working class in a country comes to power.  In order to build a socialist society, first of all, an ideological democratic system must be built.  The key to a state is the education system.  As a result, in the education policy that is conducted in our country, the students are not developed as human beings with human values, but continue to grow in person-centered thinking.  There is no student parliament election in the college university.  If there is no democratic environment then how can patriotic people be formed?  As a result, honesty, devotion, patriotism run after money by sacrificing everything and are ready to buy everything with money.  Selection means playing money.  Mamata Banerjee used to say in her speech during the election campaign in West Bengal, India that the slogan `Khela Chahe` has become very popular among the people of two Bengals.  But sadly the choice is really a matter of a game.  The union elections in our country are turning into a death march.  The electoral system of this violence was not created in a single day. Every election like National parliamentary elections, city corporation elections, municipal elections and union elections are supposed to be democratic but in reality the one who comes to power is never willing to relinquish power. As a result, they have to stay in power, whether they are voting or not.  If necessary, there is an incident in Bangladesh where democracy has been strangled and dictatorship has been established.  The term of the current EC is going to end in February 2022.  He will leave, the new EC will come again, but if the person changes, and the system will have to be changed.

 We need an accountable, transparent and credible process to form the EC.  Due to the partisanship of the electoral system in rural Bengal, the political vengeance is gaining more traction.  Election camps are set up at every street corner.  Tea, biscuits and cigarettes are served in that camp all day long.  The election management team fights to buy votes with cigarettes or money in every house in the neighborhood.  The competition of who can buy the votes of whom with how much money is ever open.  As a result, if the Election Commissioner is not vigilant, it is feared that this situation may become more dire in the third and fourth round of elections in the coming days.  The practice of buying people`s conscience and votes with looting money should be stopped.  Those who want to disrupt the entire electoral system by using muscle power, money power and vote fraud must be brought under the law and punished.  People should be given a chance to vote.  It is the responsibility and duty of the state to give the gift of transparent and fair elections by forming a neutral EC.

Author: Rasheduzzaman Rashed is a columnist. He can be reached at rashedssf12@gmail.com



  
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