While ultra-Islamist Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its ideological ally Jamaat-e-Islami is continuing destructive and terrorist acts throughout Bangladesh since October 29 hoping such notoriety would bolster its ulterior motive of seizing power through undemocratic process, Biden administration has now given clear signal of having full confidence in leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who has repeatedly vowed of holding a free and fair election on January 7, 2024.
Meanwhile, according to several observers, acting chairman of BNP, Tarique Rahman actually is looking to topple Awami League government through terrorist and destructive acts and return to power without any election. With this agenda, he has been compelling policymakers of the party in focusing only on terrorist acts. Due to such tendencies of Tarique Rahman, BNP leaders are unable to sit with the ruling party for dialogue or reach into a peaceful political settlement and participate in the January 7 general election.
Commenting on Tarique Rahman’s impractical and ridiculous stand, senior leaders of the party said, “This man [Tarique Rahman] is pushing the party towards extinction and the international community soon will brand the party as a terrorist organization due to ongoing destructive and terrorist acts which are continuing since October 29”.
Meanwhile, according to media reports, the United States has declared that it is sending a team of experts to observe the forthcoming 12th National Parliament elections in Bangladesh. The experts, set to stay in the country for six to eight weeks, will focus on assessing election-related violence.
Diplomatic sources reveal that two US research institutes, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), communicated this initiative in a letter to the Election Commission (EC) Secretariat on November 20, 2023.
In their letter to the EC, NDI and IRI specified that four experts and one expert coordinator would be deployed to Bangladesh for an extended period, working for six to eight weeks. These experts are scheduled to arrive in Bangladesh a couple of weeks prior to the election.
Their primary task involves assessing incidents of election-related violence, particularly examining violence between political parties, internal conflicts within a political party, violence against women and minorities, online harassment, and threats. Additionally, the experts will evaluate the role of government organizations in these situations.
The joint letter, signed by Jami Spykerman, NDI’s Asia Pacific program director, and Stephen Cime, IRI’s regional director for South Asia, outlines the mission’s goal of identifying those responsible for the violence in the 12th National elections and its impact.
The expert mission is expected to provide necessary recommendations to mitigate violence in future elections. Furthermore, the experts from NDI and IRI will make their assessments public and submit a comprehensive report to the election commission.
Earlier, in October, a delegation from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) visited Dhaka to assess the pre-election political situation, taking into consideration the environment surrounding the upcoming national parliament elections in Bangladesh. During that time, NDI is a statement said:
From October 8 to 11, 2023, the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) deployed a bipartisan, international delegation to provide an independent and impartial assessment of electoral preparations in advance of Bangladesh’s upcoming 12th Parliamentary Elections; examine factors that could affect the integrity and viability of the electoral process; and offer recommendations that could help improve the prospects for inclusive, transparent, and peaceful elections and public confidence in the process.
Bangladesh’s robust economic growth and strong tradition of democratic values have set a strong foundation for the country to achieve its 2041 vision of becoming a developed country. However, the current political environment presents several challenges to electoral integrity, including uncompromising and zero-sum politics, highly charged rhetoric, political violence, a widespread climate of uncertainty and fear, contracting civic space and freedom of expression, and a trust deficit among citizens, political leaders, and other stakeholders. Women, youth, and other marginalized groups also face significant barriers to participation. Bangladesh is at a crossroads and the upcoming elections provide a litmus test of the country’s commitment to a democratic, participatory, and competitive political process.
The delegation offers the recommendations below as a roadmap for progress toward credible, inclusive, participatory, and nonviolent elections that can advance Bangladesh’s democracy. They are outlined in greater detail in the statement.
- Moderate rhetoric and engage in open and substantive dialogue on key election issues.
- Protect freedom of expression and ensure an open civic space where dissent is respected.
- Commit to nonviolence and hold perpetrators of political violence accountable.
- Create conditions to allow all parties to engage in meaningful political competition, including bolstering independent election management.
Promote a culture of inclusive and active electoral participation among citizens.
To develop these recommendations, the delegation met with government officials; the Bangladesh Election Commission; party leaders from across the political spectrum; civil society representatives; current and former women members of parliament; representatives of organizations engaging with youth, persons with disabilities and religious minorities; media representatives; members of the legal community; and representatives of the international and diplomatic communities.
“We appreciate all those who shared their views freely about the challenges and opportunities that exist in Bangladesh for holding inclusive, participatory, and nonviolent elections”, said Bonnie Glick. “We came away from these conversations with concerns about the election environment, but hopeful that our recommendations can help to improve the process”.
“We feel the primary problem is lack of constructive engagement among key political actors”, said Karl Inderfurth. “The best way to end the stalemate is through good faith dialogue, in the run-up to the January 2024 elections and beyond”.
The delegation recognizes that it is the people of Bangladesh who will ultimately determine the credibility and legitimacy of their elections and their country’s democratic development. The delegation therefore offers this pre-election statement in the spirit of supporting and strengthening democratic institutions in Bangladesh.
No one recommended or supporter caretaker government
Although for more than two years, the United States, EU nations and Britain have been almost regularly pressing forward their demand of a free and fair general election in Bangladesh, none of these nations or international organizations such as the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) have ever spoken in favor of BNP’s demand of holding the next general election under an unelected caretaker government as such practice does not exists in any of the genuine democratic nations in the world. Moreover, Washington, London and other Western capitals have repeatedly expressed their confidence in holding a free and fair election under the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Under such circumstance, Washington and its Western allies are confidently looking for a free and fair election, while none of these nations are in favor of ongoing violence and terrorist acts of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and several leftist-Islamist forces. Rather, scheduled arrival of NDI and IRI delegations clearly prove – now Washington is looking for identifying the culprits who would attempt to jeopardize the upcoming general election. It is also evidently clear, following the January 7 general election, series of opposition figures from BNP, Jamaat and other political forces in Bangladesh may fall under US visa restriction as well as harsher sanctions, while Britain even may more further by taking punitive measures against BNP’s acting chairman and convicted terrorist Tarique Rahman – refuse his asylum petition and extradite him to Bangladesh. Similarly, the United States may formally designate BNP as a terrorist organization.
It may be mentioned here that in 2017, a court in the United States had termed Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) as a Tier-III terrorist organization. In the judgement, the US court said, “Because the BNP “used violence for political purposes to an extent that constitutes engaging in terrorist activity” the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals found that the party was a Tier III terrorist organization.
