Headlines

BANGLADESH: Army Deployment Ahead of Polls Questioned

Farid Ahmed

DHAKA, Dec 10 2006 (IPS) - As soldiers took over law and order on Sunday at the behest of Bangladesh’s interim government, doubts about the fair conduct of national elections, now set for Jan. 23, have only deepened.

As soldiers took over law and order on Sunday at the behest of Bangladesh’s interim government, doubts about the fair conduct of national elections, now set for Jan. 23, have only deepened.

Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed called out troops late Saturday night, ignoring the advice of his cabinet members. Troops are now patrolling the capital as well as the headquarters of 63 other districts across the country.

The decision to deploy the army came as the rival political camps, one led by Begum Khaleda Zia, who demitted office as prime minister on Oct. 28, and the other by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, continued to bicker over the reconstitution of the Election Commission (EC), casting a shadow over the conduct of elections for the country’s ninth parliament.

Speaking with IPS a top official in the interior ministry said: “We’ve decided to deploy the army in aid of the civil administration to maintain law and order.”

But the decision was taken apparently to the dissatisfaction of members of the interim cabinet who argued that it was not the proper time to deploy troops. A former army chief and a respected member of the interim government, Hasan Mashhud, was among those who have openly disagreed with the decision.

“None of the advisers (cabinet members) wanted deployment of troops right at the moment, but the chief adviser (also the President) to the interim government insisted on it,” one of the 11-member interim cabinet told IPS, asking not to be named.

The members are continuing to hold backstage parleys with the feuding political camps to resolve the standoff that is still centred on the reconstitution of the EC.

Sheikh Hasina, who leads the Awami League party that is supported by over a dozen other political parties, has been on the streets since October demanding, besides a revamped EC, the updating of voters’ rolls, rescheduling of polls, and a reshuffle of the bureaucracy to ensure “free and fair polls.”

The members of the interim cabinet managed to settle most issues but failed on the demand for a newly appointed EC, as both Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League remained rigid in their respective positions.

On Thursday, the cabinet members assured the Awami League and its allies that their demands would be met in a day or two and Sheikh Hasina responded by calling off the street agitations and asking her supporters to get ready to take part in the elections.. But, even by Saturday there was no progress on reconstituting the Election Commission and, instead, the army was called out. “We made efforts to resolve the crisis over the reconstitution of the EC but have not succeeded yet,” interim cabinet member C.M. Shafi Sami said.

The Awami League has been accusing the five-member EC of bias towards the BNP since its members were appointed by that party while in power or were in some way associated with it. The party and its allies have even accused President Ahmed of being partisan, harping on the fact that he was elected to office by parliament as a BNP nominee.

For its part, the BNP has warned the interim government against any change in the EC and the party’s secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan said removal of election commissioners against their will would be unconstitutional. Bhuiyan welcomed the move to deploy the army saying: “The President is entitled to deploy troops for recovery of illegal arms and maintain law and order.”

To its credit, the interim government on Thursday reshuffled the administration and removed several top bureaucrats and moves have been made towards correcting the electoral rolls.

The Awami League coalition has claimed that the voters’ roll contained 14 million fake names, though the actual number is disputed. In a survey released last week, the United States-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) said the list contained nearly 12 million excess voters due to error or internal migration.

The EC, on Thursday, also rescheduled the election for Jan. 23 moving it forward by two days. EC secretary Abdur Rashid Sarkar said the schedule was altered after consultation with all political parties.

The cabinet members, however, expressed optimism about resolving the crisis and hoped that the polls would be held on time.

“We are continuing our efforts. Let’s see what can be done,” another cabinet member Mahbubul Alam said.

The Awami League general secretary, Abdul Jalil, has warned that the street agitation would now be resumed. “We’ll lay siege to the presidential palace with our tens of thousands of activists,” he said on Saturday. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police immediately slapped an indefinite ban on gatherings, sit-ins or processions around the presidential palace from midnight Saturday.

Prof. Ataur Rahman, who teaches political science at Dhaka University, told IPS that the feuding parties could have settled all those issues much earlier.

“I feel the parties lack the skills for negotiationà there is no other alternative to a credible election and if the elections are not held on time, these parties will be the biggest losers,” Rahman, who is also the president of the Bangladesh Political Science Association, said.

Similar opinions were expressed by the president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Mir Nasir Hossain, in blaming the politicians for creating a situation in which the army had to be called out. “The situation has led to the deployment of army although it’s not desirable in a democratic societyà army cannot be the alternative to democracy,” he said.

At least 45 people have been killed and hundreds injured in clashes between rival political activists since late October when the coalition government led by Khaleda Zia handed over power to the interim caretaker government.

Under the Bangladeshi constitution a caretaker government must hold elections within 90 days of taking power.