Between the devil….
The general people of Bangladesh are facing a real dilemma with regard to the question of holding the next general election. Some of our intellectuals and political leaders are appealing for an early election as a solution to the current national crisis, particularly the economic one, and some of them do not want an election just for holding another election, that is, an election must be free, fair and impartial, which will produce a functional parliament, not a dysfunctional one.
This is a real problem for us. When we hear the distinguished Dr. Akbar Ali Khan advocating an early election we want to believe him, but when we hear other protagonists of democracy saying that we must have a free, fair ad impartial election, then we want to believe them also. This is really a problem for us to decide which is better.
In this context, I would like to ask those who want an early election to kindly tell us how an election could be held in the absence of a voter list because the old voter list had been declared null and void by the highest court of the country. So what would be the benefit for us if an election is held just for holding another election?
Our general people should be guided properly because holing of an election is a matter of critical importance. If we could have calculated the total amount of money spent by the government and all the contesting candidates, then we should have seen a figure by which perhaps we could have paid off our total national debts!!
Whatever is said and told by our political leaders and the intellectuals, one thing is unambiguously clear to us that we must have an election free, fair, impartial, not dominated by black-money, free from armed cadres of the political parties and, above all, which will be beneficial in the long run for the country and the people.
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