Participatory election to avoid re-run

This refers to Mr. Badiul Alam Majumder's article published in TDS on January 25, 2015. In addition to the 12 fundamental issues suggested by him, I wish to add that in national election, if  the voter turnout is less than 50 %, a re-run of the election should be held. This practice is in vogue in many countries. In our country if one of the two major parties does not participate in the election, 50 % voter turnout cannot be achieved and this has been proved beyond doubt in the elections of 15th February 1996 and 5th January 2014. So both parties should agree to take part in order to avoid re-run. Since AL has the majority in the parliamentnow, a bill may be passed to this effect.

S.A. Reza Hussain
Baridhara, Dhaka