'Country heading toward a two-party contest'

The country is effectively heading towards a two-party contest in the upcoming 13th National Parliamentary Election, said Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

He made the remark at a media briefing in Dhaka today, organised by the CPD to reveal the findings of a survey titled “Green and Sustainable Economic Outlook in Electoral Areas: Survey of Candidates and Voters”.

“Although we initially expected that many political parties would participate in the national polls, but in the end, the country is effectively heading toward a two-party contest,” he said.

As such, the major challenge is that the voters’ diverse expectations often do not align with candidates’ goals, including those contesting local elections, he also said, adding, “Voters, therefore, tend to adopt a kind of opportunistic position: they vote for the person they believe will win.”

Consequently, candidates who are genuinely working for the environment or are actually good for the locality may receive less support, he further said.

For this reason, many promising candidates often do not receive adequate citizen support, he added. “This is why having a multi-party, balanced election at the local level is very important.”

Responding to a query, Moazzem said that various recent surveys show that the vote bank of a deposed party (Awami League) is being considered a “factor” in this election since “a large segment of voters is not getting the opportunity to vote according to their preferences”.

As a result, voters’ freedom to choose candidates is being restricted to some extent, which is not fully consistent with the concept of inclusive voting, he added.
Moazzem also remarked that continuity should be maintained in some key positions that were appointed during the interim government, even under the future elected government, in the interest of economic reform.