Editorial
Why burn bridges?
Let good sense prevail
WE are taken aback by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's telling secretaries that the general election would be held within 90 days of present Jatiya Sangsad (JS)'s tenure keeping the JS and cabinet intact. With this announcement the PM has, in effect slammed shut all doors to a consensus with the opposition on a poll-time interim government.
It's worthwhile to note that recently she told the nation that parliament would be dissolved before the JS election.
One also wonders what has happened to her offer inviting the opposition BNP to place a proposal in the forthcoming JS session on an interim election-time government.
What has driven the PM, also the president of the Awami League, to take this unilateral and rigid stance on the next JS election?
To all appearances, the PM is being true to her recent public utterances on holding the next JS election the way it is done in advanced democracies. But she could not have failed to note that unlike here no ambience of mutual distrust exists in those democracies necessitating an interim, non-party poll-time government there.
In truth, has our democracy evolved into an advanced state with its institutional underpinnings as in those countries? So the need for a non-party caretaker government to oversee elections as has been in practice since 1991 could not have become redundant.
We think we echo the general sentiments about a negotiated mechanism to ensure a credible and broad based election in which all parties will participate.
We still hope good sense will prevail and the government won't burn all the bridges.
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