Why are Bangladesh elections repeatedly in controversy?

Bangladesh is scheduled to hold the general elections by January 2024.The Awami League (AL) won the 2018 general elections and formed the government. The question has been raised again about the fairness of the upcoming general elections as a result of high controversies in previous elections.

To conduct free and fair elections, Bangladesh formed a five-member Election Commission, led by former law secretary Kazi Habibul Awal, on February 27, 2022 for a five-year term. Two consecutive elections with a range of irregularities have caused a deadlock in Bangladesh’s political landscape. It is a widespread subject in Bangladesh that the Election Commission will not be able to make a difference unless it is fully empowered to conduct elections fairly.

The last three national elections in Bangladesh were held in 2008, 2014 and 2018, of these three elections, only the 2008 election was widely acclaimed. Why are the other two elections so criticized at home and abroad? The primary reason to be controversial in the 2014 election was the abrogation by the Awami League-led government in 2011 of a constitutional provision enacted in 1998 that allowed for a caretaker government to take the reins of the state in the run-up to the elections. The caretaker government was meant to ensure free and fair elections but this provision of the constitution was scrapped by two third majority governments of the Awami League. In the name of two third majority, the scrapping of the constitutional provision of caretaker government by the Awami League was a major cause of election boycott by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and it also blamed India supporting AL in both the elections.

The constitution of Bangladesh, established a secular, multiparty parliamentary democracy with a unitary, Westminster-style parliamentary republic with universal suffrage. Bangladesh is governed by a 350-member parliament, known as the Jatiyo Sangshad. Three hundred of its members are elected on a first past the post basis, and 50 seats are reserved for female nominees by political parties.

In Bangladesh, two largest parties are – the Awami League, currently in power, headed by Begum Sheikh Hasina, and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by Begum Khaleda Zia. Widely known as the “Battling Begums”; the two women have governed Bangladesh as prime ministers since 1991.

After the emergence of independent Bangladesh, five leaders of the Awami League have become the President of Bangladesh, four have become the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, and one became the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The incumbent Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, has headed the party since 1981. Another major political party, BNP won the second, fifth, sixth and eighth national elections and two Presidential elections in 1978 and 1981.

In March 1996, ensuing rising political turmoil, the Parliament passed the thirteenth constitutional amendment to agree to a neutral caretaker government to conduct new parliamentary elections. Former Chief Justice Muhammad Habibur Rahman was named Chief Advisor (equivalent to Prime Minister) in the interim government. New parliamentary elections were held in June 1996 and were won by the Awami League and Sheikh Hasina became the Prime Minister.

For the first time, Khaleda's BNP party did not participate in the 2014 elections. The primary reason given by the BNP for not contesting the elections was the abrogation by the Awami League-led government in 2011 of a constitutional provision enacted in 1996 that allowed for a caretaker government to take the reins of the state in the run-up to the elections. After the abolition of the provision of election caretaker government, boycotting the general elections by the opposition parties in Bangladesh has been a big setback for democracy and the reason for conflicts among political parties.

Since independence in 1971, Bangladesh has held elections regularly, but it is suffering from corruption, lack of press freedom, violent protests, despotic rules, poorly working checks and balances, and frequent opposition boycotts. Some experts say whether this country is moving towards the similar path of some of the sub-Saharan countries’ model of elections - by influencing and maneuvering systems and subsystems of the state to win the elections.

An election is a formal collective decision-making procedure by which people choose a candidate to hold public office and it has been a reliable mechanism for modern representative democracy. However, it has been witnessed in Bangladesh that the country's governments have been formed through elections but resemble a giant single-party rule, and the government functions without strong opposition.

Therefore, political parties in Bangladesh must have the political will to give a stable election system. A middle way, acceptable to all parties, must be sorted out to save the country from more violent and extremist expansions. It is about time to strengthen democratic institutions through a national consensus. If failed, Bangladesh could be the new long-lasting epicenter of violation and conflict in the South Asia region and could constrain the democratic system there. Moreover, all political parties should be serious in settling the political deadlock of boycotting elections. The opposition should not overestimate their street power, and the government should also not underestimate by undermining oppositions.

As in several countries with weak rule of law, the primary cause why elections do not meet international standards of being “free and fair” is interference from the government. Opposition parties in Bangladesh blame the ruling party for using the influences of the executive to remain in power despite popular opinion in favor of removal. Meanwhile, the US and its Western allies are also increasing pressure on the Bangladesh government to hold free and participatory elections as the last two national elections were allegedly marred by vote rigging. The government, however, views Western calls as foreign intervention in internal affairs.

On May 23, 2023, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced a new visa policy vis-a-vis Bangladesh in order to support the country’s goal of holding free, fair, and peaceful national elections. The policy states that the US would “restrict the issuance of visas for any Bangladeshi individual, believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic election process in Bangladesh,” including “current and former Bangladeshi officials, members of pro-government and opposition political parties, and members of law enforcement, the judiciary, and security services.”

Based on media reports, everyone in Bangladesh is tight-lipped about the government and there is a widespread fear that the 'Rapid Action Battalion' could go up to any level to suppress, but there is no way to speak against it. In a new twist, a court in Bangladesh recently sentenced in absentia the country's main opposition leader to nine years in prison. This is the fifth time courts in this South Asian nation have handed jail time to Tarique Rahman, acting chairman of the Bangladesh National Party , who has been living in the UK since 2008. The BNP decried the ruling, terming it political victimization ahead of the forthcoming general elections.

Elections are the foundation of democracy. If the foundation is weak and an election may be legally correct, but if it lacks moral and social acceptance, then the entire process loses its credibility. If the forthcoming general election follows the similar path of previous elections, democracy in Bangladesh would be more unstable and the economic gain made by the country could start to backtrack?