Group Assignment

Topic - Elections in Bangladesh

Submitted By -

Name - Shohanur Rahman Shohan

ID - 1530839630
Name - Milton Kar Mimu
ID - 1721475030
Name - Sayeed Adit Rahman
ID - 1812527630

Submitted to - Md. Saidur Rahman

Lecturer, Dept. of Political Science and Sociology
 Background of Election in Bangladesh

After the independent of Bangladesh there were total five parliamentary elections in Bangladesh.
In a democratic country like Bangladesh election is the most important sector of a citizen of the
country to choose their leader with whom they want to run their country system. The first
parliamentary election held in 1970 in the meantime, when the country is under the rule of
Pakistan. At that time the Awami league was known as a provincial party. And also the Awami
league known as a first government formed in Bangladesh. Since at the beginning of the system
of the political culture of our country was not well impressed toward to their citizen of their
nation. It became a habit to all the political party of the nation like, whoever come to power as a
government of the country. They make change the system name by their own benefits. Each and
every body part of the election effected, but the poison name called corruption.

At one period of time the Awami League was turning unpopular to their citizen of the country.
So the government decided to build up a first parliament in Bangladesh. There were total three
hundred Member of Parliament were held on 7 march 1973. Around total of fourteen political
parties and one thousand seventy eight candidate contest in the election. After that decision took
by the Awami league they won the first time parliament with 73.16 (approx.) Percent vote.
Which is total 293 seats.

In the second parliamentary elections in 1975 performed by the numbers of army officers. After
the death of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the unpopularity gain among the people of the country. To
take this advantage some army officers issued bonds to the parliament house and closed some
political activities and some parties were banned. At that time period major general Zisur
Rahman took the position of power president and leave the title of acting president of
Bangladesh. At that began the jatiyta rakkhi bahini was terminated, military officer took the all
administrative positions.

Zia came to the political sector. The election between holdings between ten different political
parties. But that time people favorite choices were Zia and known as General M.A.G osamnay,
the great supreme commander of Bangladesh military. Than the election occurred. With the huge
amount of vote around 80 percentage vote won the election. And around 19 percent vote gained
by Osmany and rest 1 percentage vote distributed between the rests of the eight political parties.
After claiming the nation power Zia named his political party is the Bangladesh National Party.
Afterward Hossain Mohammad Ershsad came to political culture. But that influence of this Zias
Bangladesh national party more than Ershad party name was called Jatiyo party. Because of
Ershad, the lifestyle of military people improved, he makes sure that increase the power of the
military. State Government gave those rations, good amount of compensation, land, housing
quarter, salary rises, and promotions and also increases their power in the nation. Jatiya party
ruled 12 years after Bangladesh national party breakdown, death of Zia. Ershad developed
country structure and kept increasing the power of Bangladesh Army. Every party when they
came to the power they kept focusing to improve and betterment to their own.

The fifth parliamentary elections held for the first time history of Bangladesh to a neutral
government. Not a single party took responsibility to the election not because they wanted to for
the neutral government party which under Bangladesh army. Just because a neutral party took
charge to the election and every political party refuse to take participate in the election that not
happen. Each and every political party participate that election. There is total two thousand three
hundred sixty three nominated by the seventy five political parties and four hundred twenty four
independent candidates. Among them Bangladesh national party had three hundred candidates in
total all districts. The Awami league had two hundred sixty four candidates. And some of them
were in favor of “Anti Ershad Movement”. And for the first time history and last Bangladesh
national party and the Awami league joint together not as party as an anti Ershad party to end the
rule of Ershad. So the fifth parliament election won by the Bangladesh national party. And after
12 years of government position, Jatiya party lost the election and became third. Bangladesh
Awami league in the second position.

The daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman took the charge of the Bangladesh Awami League.
Since then she has taken her father political party in a better position and fulfill all her father
dreams step by step. At present Bangladesh Awami League is one of the most powerful political
party in our nation. Sad but true day by day, it’s becoming very much powerful that normal
citizens of country afraid to say against them

In recent times there are three top major political parties in Bangladesh. First one is the
Bangladesh Awami League, second one is the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the third one is
Jatiya Party. As ours is a democratic country, the selection of our government elected through
the vote. All the parties come down the field with their candidates to achieve victory against all
the other parties to take the control power of the government. Huge amount of budget fixed by
the politicians to camping their party throughout the election. Every citizen of Bangladesh can
participate in the election after the age of 18. The national ID card must be required for every
citizen to vote for their respective candidate. The ward number carried by a candidate, only area
ward people can give vote to their respective leader. Finally, an election was used as an
instrument of democracy and not simply as a tool to establish the legitimacy of a regime in
power. The success of the fifth Parliament in completing its term will be the ultimate
demonstration that the proper use of elections is an essential precondition for the establishment
and operation of a democratic system.

Policy Review
Bangladesh is a democratic country and it follows Parliamentary governing system to govern the
country. Prime Minister is the head of the government. The political party which wins in the
general election decides who will become the prime minister. Generally the party head becomes
the prime minister.
The parliament of Bangladesh consists of 350 members elected for 5 years term. 300 of them are
elected in single member territorial constiuencies. This is called General Election in Bangladesh
and the process is inspired from first-past-the-post electoral system. Citizens who are of and
above 18 cast their votes for their chosen candidates. The candidate who receives most number
of votes wins the election. The remaining 50 seats are reserved for women and is filled in the
basis of proportional representation by a vote by the 300 members. The number of reserved seats
has been increased from 45 to 50 under the ninth parliament.
Since 1971, eleven general elections have been held to elect the members of the parliament
which is called Jatiya Sangsad. It was held for the first time in 1973 and the last one was on
2018.
However General election is not the only election which helds in Bangladesh. Apart from
general election City Corporation election, Zilla Parishad election, Upazilla Parishad election,
Municipality election, Union Parishad election are held in Bangladesh. The voting systems are
same as the voting system of the general election.
All these elections are conducted and regulated by The Election Commision of Bangladesh,
commonly known as EC. It is an independent constitutional body which operates the legal
functions of election laws in Bangladesh.
However Prime minister is the head of the government but President is the head of the state. At
present President of Bangladesh is elected by an indirect election by the members of the
parliament as per article 48 of the constitution of Bangladesh. Whenever the presidential offices
becomes vacant, the new president is elected by the members of parliament, although presidental
election involves direct voting from the members of parliament, they tend to vote for their
respective party backed candidates. This has not been the only process Bangladesh followed to
elect the President. The Presidential election process has been changed several times after the
independence. However the president can be impeached by the members of parliament with valid
charges being brought. This involves voting as well, if two third of the members of parliament
votes for the impeachment of the president then the president gets impeached. Since
independence there has been eleven presidential elections of which three were direct elections
and the rest were indirect.
The election system in Bangladesh is getting questioned, the independence of the election
commission is being questioned. In Bangladesh there are a few politicians who are honest and
qualified to govern the country but most the politicians are corrupt and dishonest. The duty of the
election commission is to ensure eligible candidates for the election but often it gets questioned
for its decisions regarding different candidates getting clean sheets from the election
commission. Thanks to the digital platforms which makes people aware of such things and
makes them question. The powerful politicians who are dishonest and often found guilty of
different crimes gets nominations approved from the election commission because of their power
and possession.
For such incidents the independence of the election commission is being questioned. In recent
Dhaka City Corporation election most of the candidates submitted fake information about their
wealth. Despite conclusive evidence the EC didn’t take any action. This made it obvious that the
election commission was not performing its duties properly. And this affected on the voting as
well. The voting turnout was less 30%. Election Commission could not earn the trust of the
people which affected the numbers.

Election commission plays a vital role in an election in Bangladesh. If it conducts its duties
properly people might feel interested to exercise their voting rights. The young people mostly the
students who does not follow politics does not feel the urge to exercise their voting power and
sometimes those who are interested does not exercise their ones because of the trust issues with
the electoral system. It is often found that votes have been snatched, fake votes have been casted,
people could not vote because they were threatened and so on. It is election commission’s duty
to ensure the safety for the voters and gain their trust so that they can come to vote. Election
commission should make the voters aware and ensure every possible thing to get their job done.

Recommendations:

Ensuring Fair Budget:

Budget issue is a quite bad influence during the elections. In Bangladesh it is often seen the
candidates spending money carelessly during the election. It is a bad influence for our future
generation. Because of this lot of boys from young age get involved in working for the
candidates for the greed of money. The time they should study they keep themselves busy with
the election works. This is just not it. Further some of them get involved in politics at an early
age. Without this, there are a lot of poor people in our country who can’t even bear two times
meal a day. The money which are being wasted in the elections can be used for those people.
Spending money for making countless leaflets or making countless banners or creating
unnecessary campaigns doesn’t make any sense. Doing any of those is a waste of money, isn’t it?
And doing all of those is even worse. Obviously, wasting money is not a good thing after all.

Increasing Security of Ballot Boxes:

In every election we see having problem with ballot boxes. We hear news on it too. The story
goes like, votes are being stolen from the ballot boxes. How come that happens? No one know.
Once the result is out no one cares about the ballot boxes or about the stolen votes. Some people
even don’t go for voting because of this. They think it is useless to go for voting as the votes are
being stolen. They lose their will. Thus, they don’t vote. Isn’t it obvious to lose will to vote when
one knows that the votes are being stolen every time? Of course, it is obvious and if this keeps
happening then there’s no doubt that one day there won’t be any general people to vote for the
country and this can take the country to a serious situation where civil wars can take place.
Therefore, it is mandatory to increase the security of the ballot boxes. With that the system will
stay secure and voters will be more curious for voting for their favorite candidate.

Increasing Security for the Voters:

It is a shame of us that we as voters can’t vote our preferable candidates. It is because of the
syndicate of the opposition parties. It is bad that despite of the security around the voting room or
halls the opposition party’s people leak information and harass voters. In very election we see
and hear a lot news from the media. Media can’t cover all the story of it. If that is so then we
can’t imagine how many stories there are of voters being harassed during the elections. This
shouldn’t be happened during an election. Because if that is how it is supposed to go then what’s
the point of the voters voting for any candidate? Therefore, the security for the voters should be
increased.

Strict Maintenance of the Rules:

Rules are equal for everyone. It is important for the people of a country to maintain rules. If one
can maintain the rules properly then he is called a good citizen otherwise he is irresponsible.
Rules are just not to be a good citizen but also to be a good human. Yes, to be a good human
being one must follow life rules as well. But in Bangladesh we are less likely maintain rules and
it a big problem of us. It doesn’t go opposite with everything. During the election times it can be
seen more. Candidates don’t care about anything and they keep doing their campaigns.
Promoting their campaigns with loud mikes or music boxes. They think it’s normal but it
pollutes the sound of environment. People who have high pressure or have heart diseases get in
trouble because of the loud mikes and the speakers. They don’t spare the hospitals and schools
too. There are a lot of sick people in the hospitals and they face problems too. Students can’t
concentrate on their studies because of the loud mikes and speakers. But our candidates don’t
even bother about it. All they care about their campaigns. Not just polluting the sound but they
waste a lot of papers to make their leaflets. This is a proper waste of paper. Because after the
elections the leaflets are useless. With those leaflets they pollute the roads. During elections
leaflets are seen to be spread all over the roads. It pollutes the roads as well as the environment.
Woods are being used to make banner and that is a waste to. Trees are important for the earth. It
provides us oxygen. But during the elections many trees are being cut just to make the banner
and it must not happen. Above mention all of the matters are related of violating rules. If they
can’t maintain these basic rules then it is impossible for them to stay honest away from the greed
of winning the election by cheating. Therefore, the rules should be strictly maintained during the
election.

Ensuring Fair Election:

It is important for every election to be fair. Without fair elections it is not possible to develop a
country. To develop a country, it is important to decide an eligible candidate who can work for
the country. If the candidate is not eligible then it can’t be worse for the people for having a bad
time. An eligible candidate knows his work and he does work according to it. But a noneligible
candidate doesn’t know his work and he always try to scam people because of his greed towards
power and money. Therefore, it is very important for the people who are related to elections to
ensure fair election. A country can’t prosper alone but with the people. With the support of the
people the candidate works accordingly and grows the country for a better future. Thus, it is very
important to ensure fair election. In Bangladesh lack of fair elections lead people to suffer more
and make them more frustrated.