Editorial
Modalities of the next election
Ruling party must reach out to all
The prime minister has seemingly had a change of heart. Where she had informed the nation earlier that the next general election would be held with the present Jatiyo Sangsad staying on, she has now told us that the election could be held after the dissolution of parliament as it exists now. This new position on the part of the prime minister is quite at variance with her earlier position. There appear to be quite a few gaps in the new position. On the one hand, Sheikh Hasina has stated that parliament will be dissolved before the election. On the other, she has said that while she will inform the president that the government wants a new election, the question of when parliament will be dissolved is a matter which rests with the head of state.
In a parliamentary system, it is on the advice of the prime minister that the president will decide the next course of action where dissolution of the JS is concerned. But where the fifteenth amendment to the constitution has done away with the caretaker system and where ruling party figures have repeatedly stated that the next election will be held with the present government in office, further clarifications would be in order in light of the PM's latest statement.
It is perfectly understandable, in a politically tenuous situation as that prevailing in Bangladesh, that ideas will be thrown up and deliberated upon. But what is surely worrying is the feeling that the prime minister has been coming up with one thought after another on the modalities of the forthcoming election apparently without taking the views of her party colleagues into consideration. As for the AL's allies in the grand alliance, they are clearly in the dark since the prime minister does not seem to be ready to discuss policy with them. Worst of all, the ruling party has not seen it necessary to engage the opposition on the issue at all. All that has been happening is the prime minister coming forth with her views on the election without any follow-up action, particularly in terms of making an open, clear approach to the opposition.
The ruling party, in consultation with its allies, must formulate a clear position on the election. And it must then reach out, formally and purposefully and without ambiguity, to the BNP, indeed to broad civil society. If a credible election is the goal, nothing other than having every party on board is acceptable.
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