Politics in Bangladesh got a new twist this week following the formation of a new poll time government. The main purpose behind the formation of this government was to ease up the political crisis regarding the nature of government to supervise the general elections.
Analysis
Politics in Bangladesh got a new twist this week following the formation of a new poll time government. The main purpose behind the formation of this government was to ease up the political crisis regarding the nature of government to supervise the general elections. But now doubts are being expressed about the possible success of this interim government in resolving the political crisis in the country. The conduct of this government will have great impact on the future of Bangladesh.
A 29-member poll-time cabinet was formed this week. Out of the 29 ministers, eight are new faces while the rest are from the previous cabinet. The new faces were inducted into the cabinet on November 18. The new faces are Amir Hossain Amu and Tofail Ahmed of the ruling Awami League, Rashed Khan Menon of the Workers Party and Anisul Islam Mahmud, Rahul Amin Hawlader, Rawshan Ershad of the Jatiya Party. The state ministers are Mujibul Hague Chunnu and Salma Islam from the Jatiya Party.
With the formation of the new cabinet, the tenure of the incumbent Awami League-led 14-party alliance government has ended. Earlier, all the 52 ministers of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s cabinet submitted their resignation to make way for the new cabinet. Resignation of around 30 members of the previous cabinet was accepted while the remaining 21 ministers were retained. Sheikh Hasina continues to be the Prime Minister of the new government as well. The main function of the new government is to supervise the elections.
Crisis over caretaker Govt
Politics in the country is facing a crisis due to the differences between the two major political parties over the nature of the government to supervise the elections. While the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) demanded the reinstallation of the caretaker government to supervise the coming general elections and threatened not to participate in the elections unless its demand was fulfilled, the ruling Awami League was advocating for the democratically-elected government to supervise the election.
The Awami League Government had abolished the system of the impartial caretaker government, which supervised three consecutive general elections (1996-2008), through a constitutional amendment in 2011 after a Supreme Court verdict dismissed it. The non-compromising stances of the two major political parties created a political logjam in the country. To break the impasse, Sheikh Hasina declared her intention to form an all party poll time government to supervise the elections and invited the opposition to be part of the new government. Initially, Shiekh Hasina’s declaration had infused optimism to end the crisis, but all hopes were shattered as BNP stayed away from the new government.
’Old wine in new bottle’
The present move of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been criticised by the country’s political analysts. They described the new government as ’old wine in a new bottle’ as the member participating parties of the new government were all in the same ruling coalition led by the Awami League. For instance, the Jatiya Party which now poses to be opposition, was part of the Awami League-led grand alliance few days back.
The Jatiya Party’s move to separate itself from the coalition was simply a political move to give a neutral colour to the government. The present development has been described by many as a move to neutralise the BNP. The political analysts also doubt the credibility of the elections in case the government moves ahead with an election without the BNP’s participation.
Opinions vary on this. There are views that suggest that the absence of one particular political party from the elections does not make it illegitimate. The elections will be considered legitimate if all the standard practices are followed, including significant participation of the people and free and fair conduct of the polls.
Observers argue that elections without BNP, however credible it might be, will not solve the problem; contrarily it will only add to more chaos. They predict a scenario which will only see a string of elections like the country had experienced in 1996. In 1996, two elections were held within a gap of few months. The Awami League had boycotted the election in 1996 and the BNP went ahead with elections in February. However, it had to resign following protest movements by the Awami League and fresh general elections in June the same year.
The BNP also shares a fair amount of responsibility. From the very beginning of Parliament in 2009, BNP lawmakers hardly attended the parliament and threatened to overthrow the government. The cancellation of the caretaker government gave an agenda to the party. The BNP rejected the Awami League’s invitation for discussing the nature of caretaker government and went ahead with street violence. In case the Awami League is able to conduct a fair election and the BNP does not participate in the poll, it might be an opportunity lost. The party defeated the Awami League in most of the local body elections held earlier in the year and observers suggest that the BNP has a significant chance of coming back to power.
The future of the country’s politics looks uncertain now. Analysts described the situation as ’confusion gives way to chaos’. It appears that the BNP is not likely to participate in the elections. The coming days will be a testing time for the new government.
(The writer is an Associate Fellow at Observer Research Foundation)
The views expressed above belong to the author(s). ORF research and analyses now available on Telegram! Click here to access our curated content — blogs, longforms and interviews.
PREV
