By Muhammad Shoaib
In the current political situation in Bangladesh, all parties participating in the upcoming elections are receiving full support from the current government. There is no opposition party actively competing. All candidates enjoy government support, and were interviewed by the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the head of the Amil League before announcing their participation in the elections.
In these elections, 27 parties out of 44 registered with the Election Commission are participating, and all of these parties enjoy government support. In fact, there is no opposition party in these elections, and this means that the elections are unilateral.
According to sources, there are instructions from the center to support independent candidates who participated in the elections from among the 27 parties. This shows the government’s strategy of making independent candidates as opposition candidates, even though they are its men.
After the men of the current government received the green signal from the head of the party, they announced their participation in the elections as independent candidates, and announced their competition in 127 seats out of 300 seats in the Bangladeshi Parliament. Although all of them have different high positions of government and Awami League.
This scenario raised inquiries within the European Union, as they asked who are the opponents in these elections, and even the Secretary General of the Awami League, Obaidul Quader, was also unable to identify the opposing party, when asked about it by the European Union delegation.
In the midst of the same question, the European Union delegation asked the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh about his opponent in the elections, but he was unable to answer him.
27 political parties out of 73 registered and unregistered in the country are competing in these elections. Among the participating parties, one part of 4 parties participated in the elections, while others were excluded. In total, 23 parties participated fully and 4 parties partially, but all of these parties leaned in favor of the ruling party and worked for the government and the Awami League.
Apart from this, there are three independent parties known as the King’s Party, namely: Trinamool BNP, Nationalist Movement (BNM) and Bangladesh Supreme Party (BSP). These parties raise controversy as they were allegedly formed by order of the government through intelligence officers with the aim of forming opposition parties in the absence and boycott of the elections by the real opposition parties. These three parties obtained registration from the Election Commission.
If the Awami League is excluded from the 23 parties, 22 parties will remain. Among these parties, 6 parties are in the fourteen-party alliance with the Awami League. The parties are Workers Party and Samyavadi Dal, Bangladesh Tarikat Federation, Bangladesh National Awami Party-NAP, Jatiya Party-JP, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-JSAD.
The Awami League left 6 seats to 3 parties from the four-party alliance led by the Awami League.
Among the remaining 16 parties, 5 parties participate are in the grand coalition led by the Awami League, which are: Jatiya Party, Gano Forum, Zaker Party, Bikolpo Dhara and Misbahur Rahman Chowdhury-led Islami Oikyazot.
Among the remaining 11 parties, there are 4 Islamic parties loyal to the government. These are Islami Front, Bangladesh Muslim League, Bangladesh Islamic Front, Bangladesh Khilafat Movement. Among the Islamist parties, these parties have been supporting the government in various ways for a long time.
Of the remaining seven parties, two – the Welfare Party and the Bangladesh Jatia were in the 12-party alliance against the government.
But they were forced to participate in the elections under pressure from intelligence officers.
Among the remaining five parties, the head of the Krishak Sramik Janata League, Qadir Siddiqui, met the Prime Minister along with his family before the election schedule was announced. After the meeting, he told reporters that he would support his sister Sheikh Hasina as long as she is alive.
Qadir Siddiqui’s candidacy was canceled due to his loan defaults in the last elections. This time, his nomination papers were not canceled for mysterious reasons, despite the cancellation of non-performing loans.
Among the remaining four parties, National People’s Party (NPP), Bangladesh Congress, Cultural Liberation Alliance and Ganofront are non-existent. No voter in Bangladesh will be able to mention the names of these candidates. It is assumed that the security of all their candidates will be lost. These parties are mainly done at the request of various organizations. They are included in the elections to increase the number of parties participating in the elections.
In this election, the main debate was over the Jatia Party. The Jatia Party participated in the 2018 elections as a partner in the Awami League-led grand coalition. As such, the party was part of the government party. But the party gained the position of main opposition party through a violation of parliamentary norms. The same situation was in the parliament that was formed in the 2014 elections. Some Jatia Party MPs joined the government in that parliament. On the other hand, the party was the main opposition party in Parliament.
The Jatia party has been supporting and following the Awami League since its ouster in 1990.
This time, the party first began to act ambiguous regarding the issue of participation in the elections. In public, they announced that they would not participate in the elections this time, and on the other hand, they held secret meetings with the government party regarding deciding the seats. After a series of meetings, an agreement was reached between the two parties in 26 electoral districts. As part of the settlement, the Awami League withdrew its party candidates from 26 seats. As a result, the Awami League, one of the country’s major parties, participated in the elections with fewer candidates than the Jatia Party.