Asia-Pacific, Civil Society, Development & Aid, Headlines, Human Rights

BANGLADESH: Corrupt Politicians, Cleaner Polls

Farid Ahmed

DHAKA, Dec 28 2008 (IPS) - Bangladesh goes to polls on Monday after a military-backed interim government spent two years trying to cleanse the country’s electoral system of fraud and get rid of rampant corruption in public life.

Analysts say the interim government of former World Bank official Fakhruddin Ahmed has succeeded in reforming the electoral system by preparing a fresh voters’ roll with photo identities that eliminated nearly 13 million fake names, but may have utterly failed to bring about changes in the country’s tainted political setup.

With two years of military-enforced, emergency rule lifted last week some 80 million voters are now set to democratically choose a government in the first parliamentary election in almost eight years.

Doubts persist and analysts, representatives of non-government organisations (NGOs) and former officials have raised concerns over whether the politicians can ever break the cycle of violent street politics, bouts of military rule, and endemic corruption that has plagued Bangladesh.

“Many people are in doubt whether there will be free, fair and credible elections… and if it doesn’t happen the country will be back to square one,” a Dhaka-based businessman, Arifur Rahman, told IPS.

Few believe that anything substantial has been achieved during the tenure of the unelected interim government which came to power under a state of emergency two years ago, following deadly street violence over how and when the polls should be conducted.

The Ahmed government’s efforts at cleaning out politics included detaining the leaders of the country’s two main political parties, Sheikh Hasina Wajed of the Awami League and Begum Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) on charges that they were involved in corrupt practices while serving prime ministerial terms.

Several thousand people, including some 200 high-profile politicians and businessmen, were also arrested on graft charges. As the drive intensified many politicians left the country, though many are now back to fight the elections.

More than 2,000 cases have so far been filed under the emergency rules, mostly against politicians and businessmen on various charges ranging from corruption and tax evasion to extortion.

The government has set up 10 special judge’s courts for the trial of these corruption cases. More than 300 people, including about 60 politicians and their close relations, have already been convicted. Those convicted have been barred from contesting the polls.

“The graft cases, investigations, and trials will continue even after the emergency… they will continue under the regular law of the country,” Anisul Huq, a senior lawyer of the Anti-Corruption Commission, told IPS.

However, while pursuing its anti-corruption crusade, the interim government fell back on a promised task to revive the economy. Instead, millions of people ended up being pushed below the poverty line as businesses closed down and the prices of food grains went through the roof.

But, to its credit, the government did succeed in revising the electoral rolls. This was one of the reasons which led the Awami League to take to the streets and scuttle elections originally scheduled to be held in January 2007.

An independent audit of the computerised voters’ list, conducted by Washington-based International Foundation for Electoral Systems – consisting of two nationwide surveys sampling nearly 17,000 individuals of voting age – concluded that the list was compiled with a high degree of accuracy and that there were no ‘ghost voters’ on the new electoral roll.

The head of the EU election observation mission to Bangladesh, Alexander Graf Lambsdroff, said the Election Commission had still some challenges to face in holding free, fair and credible elections on Dec. 29, despite the lifting of emergency and allowing political parties to carry out electioneering without any restriction.

The United Nations and diplomats from western countries welcomed the withdrawal of emergency and urged the two major political parties to address the nation’s challenges together, collaboratively and collegially.

Apart from the ghost voters issue, the Awami League had accused the erstwhile interim government headed by President Iajuddin Ahmed and the Election Commission of being biased towards the BNP which ruled the country for five years until Oct. 28, 2006 with Khaleda Zia as prime minister.

This time around Zia is accusing the present interim government and the reconstituted Election Commission of favouring Hasina Wajed’s Awami League.

As the polls near, both the parties are campaigning in earnest and back to maligning each other.

The ‘Daily Star,’ an influential English-language paper, called for both parties to display “maturity” and “responsibility”. “Now that the parties are firmly settled in the election groove, they should play their part in steering the nation to its cherished goal of attaining a truly democratic order,” a lead column said.

The return of politicians accused of corruption to the electoral fray has frustrated many people. “How can you see any change in politics when all those corrupt people are again in the race … it’s a total failure of the present government to carry out proper investigation against them,” a schoolteacher, Shafiq Alam, said.

“If the situation is not changed, investors may stay away and the country will remain stuck in a cycle of instability that holds it back from dealing with massive poverty or getting along without foreign aid,” said businessman Arifur Rahman.

Many fear violence on polling day or even after that, although the government has repeatedly said that adequate security steps have been taken.

In the past few weeks, the security forces have arrested dozens of Islamist militants and recovered explosives from places where Khaleda Zia and Hasina Wajed were scheduled to attend rallies.

A prominent rights group, ‘Odhikar’, said in a statement that the government and the Election Commission should take appropriate measures to guarantee the safety and security of members of vulnerable groups and communities on the polling day and afterwards.

The ‘New Age’ daily, in a recent editorial, said that under emergency rule – which spanned over 23 months – attempts were made to distort the political process, the judiciary was abused, the economy was brought to its knees, and a host of arbitrary and anti-people political, social and economic decisions were taken.

Zaid Bakth, a research director at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, told IPS that it was imperative for Bangladesh to have political stability. “Political instability is not only the reason for the country’s financial crisis, but it’s a pre-condition… as a small country it’s already vulnerable because of the ongoing global financial meltdown,” he said.

There was no investment, both foreign and domestic, because of political uncertainty over the last couple of years, Bakth e said, adding that only political stability and proper decisions by the next elected government restore growth to this impoverished country of 150 million people.