Jan 7 Election Not Free-Fair-Participatory: TIB

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) on Wednesday (January 17) said that the January 7 election was not free, fair, and participatory.

TIB executive director Iftekharuzzaman came up with the observation based on research at a press conference at its office in the capital’s Dhanmondi.

According to the TIB research on the January 7 election, it was also said that the overall experience, including successes and failures, it was a bad alarm for the future of democracy and democratic elections in Bangladesh.

It was contradictory to the spirit and dream of the liberation war and independence of the country, it said.

It said that participatory and free elections were not held due to the contradictory and intransigent positions of the two major parties on the issue of polls time government.

TIB said that a unilateral election to implement a strategy of staying in power was successfully conducted on January 7.

It said that the legal validity of which may or may not be sustained by any challenge. However, this success will forever be questioned in terms of political correctness, democratic and moral standards.

The research also said that the concept of democratic elections and national and international best practices, like the prerequisites for ensuring a free, participatory, impartial, and level playing field for competition, were not in the elections.

TIB also observed that the Election Commission had acted as one of the catalysts for implementation of unilateral electoral agendas, sometimes intransigently, sometimes subtly, in the name of constitutional obligations and legal bindings.

The other state institutions, particularly the law enforcement agencies and the administration, had similarly been used or indulged in supporting the same agenda, it said.

TIB findings also said that political ideology had nothing to do with the long-standing culture of power struggles in the name of elections, had been proven once again.

The staged game (elections) held among the ruling party and its independent candidates, and the party supported other party candidates without meaningful political oppositions in the polls, it said.

The staged polls, organised by the party’s government-backed candidates, has also resulted in sick and violent contests with widespread violations of code of conduct.

The elections have institutionalised the absolute control of the ruling party over the political arena and the governance system, and have further expanded the way for the indiscriminate application of the power without accountability.

The dominance of business people in Parliament had also increased to monopoly levels, increasing the risk of wider conflicts of interest and policy interference in state affairs, TIB said.

Election promises to establish good governance and control corruption have become more and more unreal and paper documents, it said.