Parliamentary election is controversial, says TIB

The Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has labelled the 11th parliamentary election as ‘controversial’, saying the participating political parties did not have equal opportunities and the vote was dogged by irregularities.

The Bangladesh office of the Berlin-based Transparency International, an organisation promoting public opinion against corruption, said such an election does not bode well for democracy.

It made public the observations at a news conference on Tuesday while launching its primary report on the election.

Demanding a judicial probe into the allegations of vote rigging, TIB said, “There have been irregularities in the electoral process. The election has been questionable, controversial.”

The ruling Awami League won a landslide in the ballot held on Dec 30, 2018. The party alone won 257 of the 298 constituencies up for grabs and a total of 288 seats as part of the Grand Alliance. Its main rival, the BNP and their opposition allies siffered a crushing defeat and have just seven seats to show for.

The Awami League has already formed government for a third straight time, but the BNP and its partners in the Jatiya Oikya Front coalition have announced that their MPs-elect will not take oath, alleging irregularities in the election. They have demanded a re-election overseen by a non-partisan government.

"The 11th parliamentary election can be considered participatory since all the registered political parties have partaken in it but it was not competitive,” said TIB in its initial report.

Speaking about the process of making the report, the NGO said it had randomly selected 50 seats out of 300 and took statements from the authorities. Data was collected and reviewed from the two main alliances and sometimes from a third party in certain cases. The report was prepared from the data gathered from 107 candidates.

Criticising the Election Commission, the report said, "The EC was not able to play the appropriate role in many important areas. It was not able to ensure a level playing field for all the participating parties and candidates. There were disagreements among the officials about whether there was a level playing field.”

The TIB also observed that apart from the information flow being 'controlled' during the election by the ruling party, some of their activities have also influenced the election.

There was a tendency among the candidates to violate the electoral code of conduct.  The campaign budget, as specified by the EC for each seat, was crossed, which served as an evidence of the disregard for the laws, it remarked.

After presenting the report at the media call, TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said, “From the announcement of the election schedule to the voting day, the electoral rules were not followed at different levels which led to a partial participation in the election. Voters did not get an equal chance to cast their vote as per their expectations. The different party candidates did not get equal opportunities to campaign."

Citing the lack of expected impartiality from the EC, he said, "There was a failure in taking timely action to ensure full participation of everybody. In general, the election can be said to have been participatory because all the parties nominated candidates. But it was partially participatory because not everyone was afforded the same opportunities.”

"This kind of election is not good for democracy. It is also true that democracy does not come with a single election nor it can be destroyed."

"If equal opportunities are not given in the election, it does not augur well for democracy. That is why the election is being questioned. It is expected that everyone will get equal opportunity in the election,” said Sultana Kamal, chairperson of TIB Trustee Board.

"If everyone does not get equal opportunities, there remains doubt. This does not set a good example for democracy. There was a lot of errors in managing the election. That is why we are asking that the faults be corrected to make the upcoming elections fair."