When will Bangladesh hold election? Khaleda Zia’s party grows impatient with Yunus

The political turmoil is not over yet in Bangladesh. The caretaker Muhammad Yunus government that helms the affairs following the weeks-long violence and more than 600 deaths during protests has one specific, though onerous, task to do — hold election for a democratically elected government.

The Awami League of deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was thrown out of power through a youth agitation within eight months of its election. The next biggest party in Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BMP) — of former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia who remained imprisoned or sidelined for a decade and her son and BNP’s acting chairperson Tarique Rahman still lives in exile in London — is pressing for holding early elections, while Yunus has indicated that the polls will be delayed.

How long can the Yunus government delay holding the parliamentary election?

Fifth caretaker government since 1990

This is not the first caretaker government that Bangladesh has seen since 1990, when the first such arrangement was made to conduct the parliamentary election. The arrangement came up to end the military rule of General Hussain Arshad as the rival political parties announced the 1990 Joint Declaration, providing for a caretaker government to ensure free and fair elections.

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The first caretaker government was formed without a legal, parliamentary or constitutional backing. However, once the new government came in, the provision was ratified by Bangladesh’s legislature in 1991. But sharp differences emerged between the two main parties, the BNP and the AL, leading to the delay in a concrete law on it.

The next election of 1996 was held under a caretaker government led by a former chief justice of Bangladesh. And the next year, the Begum Khaleda Zia-led government used its majority to get a law enacted for caretaker-government monitored elections. Sheikh Hasina was opposed to the idea.

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The third caretaker government came up in 2001 for holding another parliamentary election, and the fourth one was formed in 2006 at the end of the tenure of the Begum Zia government. But this turned into a major problem as the military-backed caretaker government exceeded its brief of holding the election within 90 days.

This caretaker government not only delayed the parliamentary election and stayed in power for two years, it also took policy decisions. Incidentally, the BNP leaders are now referring to the same political overreach by a caretaker government while demanding an early parliamentary election now.

Why BNP is growing impatient

When Yunus took over the caretaker government as Bangladesh’s chief advisor, he promised “free, fair and participatory election” once the reforms had been carried out.

However, he refused to provide any timeline for the polls and instead emphasised that he has the “mandate” of first carrying out “vital reforms” in the country.

The BNP), a key political group, has urged the interim government to initiate talks with political leaders to hold the national election within a “reasonable time”. The party has intensified its pressure on Yunus, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who heads the new administration.

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the BNP’s secretary general, told a Bangladeshi news outlet earlier this week, “People want to vote. There should be a dialogue between the political parties for the election.”

Islam asserted that the people of Bangladesh might not wait for “more than three months” as he also referred to the 1996 experience, “Probably, reasonable time should be given to the interim government, but not unreasonable time, like in the past — two or three years. I don’t think they [the people] will accept that.”

The BNP appears to be wary of the prospects of a repeat of the past, when the army-controlled caretaker government exceeded mandated three months and delayed the voting by about two years. That delay had brought Sheikh Hasina back to power.

Hasina’s government brought an amendment and rescinded the caretaker system in 2011. And she continued to be in power until the recent youth agitation that began over the question of quota system in hiring for government jobs but ended up ousting her from power. Before that Hasina won four consecutive parliamentary elections — none was held under a caretaker government.

What Yunus says about election

Bangladesh’s constitution mandates that the parliamentary election must be held within 90 days of the fall of a government. But Yunus has not yet given a clear timeline, more than a fortnight after he became the chief advisor.

In a televised address on Sunday, Yunus said the government is preparing to hold “ideal elections,” but “when the election will be held is entirely a political decision, not ours”.

Yunus said, “The countrymen will decide when we should leave. We came here, responding to students’ calls. They are the ones who appointed us and the people of the country supported our appointment. We will constantly remind everybody of this issue so that the question does not suddenly arise when we should go.”

This statement has angered the BNP. Islam, though acknowledging the need for reforms to the Election Commission, said, “It’s a vague, totally a vague statement.”

Emphasising that Yunus should invite the political parties to discuss the election roadmap, Islam said, “He’s well respected in Bangladesh as well as in the entire world. But he’s not a politician. A state is run by politicians. A government is run by politicians.”

“It’s true that the new government must act as per the desire of the people. But what is the desire of the people and what is the way? How do you know the people? What do people want to say? We think that Parliament is the only place where these things can be decided,” Islam, who was in jail when the last national election was held in January this year, said.

Hasina resigned and fled to India on August 5 after her appeal for help was rejected by the Bangladesh Army. Deadly protests by students ended with Yunus as the head of the interim government, which has the backing of the military that is not alien to ruling the country.