Donors' view
The media carried a news item that the donors are satisfied with the address of the CA. They also expressed their full confidence that the election preparations were progressing well and the voter list would be ready in time for the election. Our respected guests from abroad are well informed about our ground realities. They are financing the voter list preparations. There is every reason to defend their funding which has accountability. But they have never explained to us what makes them so sure about all those episodes when Bangladeshis themselves are not yet sure, despite a timeline for general election being declared by the CA.
We have not yet seen any concrete picture of the progress of the voter list at upazila level. After 18 months an election commissioner has clarified in a talk show that there is no voter ID as such, the voter list would include the picture of the voter which would be used for verification. The national ID card has no bearing on the verification of voter. The commissioner also mentioned very casually about the progress of voter list but not in any meaningful details for us to understand where we stand actually. The commissioner also expressed his confidence that nobody could raise any question in the court about the proposed electoral boundaries, but a writ has already been filed in the HC against the delimitation process!
The BBC Bangla also carried out an interview of the chairperson of the FEMA. She expressed the hope that the preparatory work would be complete in time, but was not very specific. FEMA is a stakeholder in the election preparatory work as mobiliser of voters, so they should be able to provide a more concrete picture of the progress of voter list, and not only "hope" that it would be complete in time.
There is photo gimmick in the voter list. We Bangladeshis might be excited to see, but our donor friends from abroad are familiar with such kind of technology and need not be overwhelmed and may give a clean certificate of progress without going into the details of what has been achieved so far. There is nothing wrong to be optimistic. But the question is: please give factual details which can be verified to corroborate your optimism.
I would be very happy if I could share the same optimism with our donor friends. But I cannot, because the people of Bangladesh are not in agreement with the opinion of the donor agencies. To me, the address to the nation by the CA is missing the political realities and lacks statesmanship. The political dialogue is heading for a negative result and would create a new political issue for the government to take the hard line and the politicians would be blamed as usual for that situation. Inter and intra party conflicts from the grassroots to the national level cannot be ruled out, if the government fails to maintain its political neutrality.
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