Caretaker Government in Bangladesh [1990 – 2011] – An Early and Digital Demise. Question

Caretaker Government [1990 – 2011] – An Early and ''Digital'' Demise?

Faizul Khan Tanim tries to find out who will take care of the country in times of interim trouble

Many believe that the caretaker government (CG) probably had an untimely demise in Bangladesh. While the civil society, citizens from all over the country and the main opposition party have expressed grave concerns over the nullification of the CG system through the 15th amendment of the constitution, the government believes that this amendment was essential for ensuring true reflection of the people’s will.

The 15th amendment bill was passed in the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) by 291 to one votes. The session was boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

BNP and allies have protested against the amendment quite vigorously in the streets. Rather interestingly, it was our current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who led the movement for starting a non-partisan caretaker government to supervise elections. And at that time, the then prime minister Khaleda Zia and her party fiercely opposed the idea until it was forced upon them after intense political unrest.

Finally incorporated in the constitution in 1996, the caretaker system was used effectively in the last three parliamentary polls, including the one in 2008 that was won handsomely by the AL-led grand alliance. However, it must also be added that whichever party lost the polls, alleged that the elections were rigged.

But according to local and international election observers, mainstream national dailies and opinion of citizens in the TV channels and other mass media, all these past three parliamentary elections were considered free and fair.

Therefore, questions are placed and eyebrows are raised as to why this amendment was made so hastily.

Well-known political columnist Mozammel Babu told The Independent that it was imperative for the government to address this issue after the Supreme Court's verdict.

“The country's constitution does not allow unelected people to run the country even for a single day. The court observed that when caretaker government comprised of unelected people take power, it gives rise to major controversies. In 1991, there was controversy regarding chief justice Shahbuddin Ahmed as he went back to head the judiciary after the polls. In 1996 Latifur Rahman’s many activities were controversial. Again in 2001, there were unrest during chief justice Muhammad Habibur Rahman's period and if you notice carefully, in every installation of a CG, the military enjoys a special advantage or a national or international conspiracy unfolds.”

“However, the meaning of SC's observation is that since Bangladesh is not ready and one political party will never run for the polls under the other’s supervision, addressing the main concerns like not involving the judiciary, and omitting unelected people, if according to the court, a supervisory government can be developed, then we may go towards a possible solution. I believe there is a chance of developing an independent interim government if all the parties from the parliament decide to form a national government during that time under the president. And this presidential form can be something like this – there will be equal numbers of ministers from the just-retired government and opposition. I think that the chance of forming an independent interim government has not vanished yet. I think AL will be accommodative towards an independent caretaker government formed under the president with the elected representative of the parliament on either prorated or equal basis”, he added.

On the issue of the opposition expressing concerns that the election will not be free and fair under AL's suggested interim government and if this concern is justified, Babu said, “I don’t know if this concern is justified but many question the authenticity of an election under a partisan government. Election rigging happens in three ways – one person giving another's vote, now we have a pictorial voter list which has solved this problem. The second way is ballot stuffing but now the election commission (EC) is proposing electronic voting machine (EVM) which counts the total number of votes cast after which, the individual party vote has to be the same as the total votes count and these processes will check immediately and ensure fair polls. A third problem pointed out by the parties is that they allege that their party members were not allowed to come to the voting station, this problem is yet to be solved but a probable solution might be an advanced online voting system when citizens would be able to use their ID and cast the vote only once. The voting system has gone to such a level and the EC is now so much equipped that vote rigging is not that easy. I think. BNP is only doing this for a movement therefore, as per the court's observation and peoples expectation, for the next two polls, I am looking forward to an interim government with multi-party representation.”

However, the former adviser to caretaker government Dr Akbar Ali Khan said, “The next general elections would be questionable and unacceptable, if the two major political parties cannot reach a consensus over this issue, the country’s political crisis would deepen even further. However, there is still time for discussion between the government and the opposition to reach an acceptable solution to save the country from political turmoil.”

Khan blames the government of bringing the amendment to the constitution hastily, keeping the main opposition and its allies outside the House.

On the issue of AL's claim that if the CG system prevails more 1/11s may take place, Khan questioned that previously three general elections have been free, fair and successful under a CG, so why would another 1/11 occur?

Babu strongly believes that BNP has an assumption based on the trend analysis of past elections that whichever party did a massive revolution and went for the polls, came out victorious. This is a wrong conception of Begum Khaleda Zia. For example, this time, a party will win based on a mark sheet where citizens will actually score them out of 100 based on their promises, and attainments vis-à-vis their election mandates.

BTW senior citizens and bloggers from all over the country and outside have raised questions on this hurried amendment and commented that the government should have waited until the release of full text of the SC as nobody knows the details yet. They said that constitutional amendments are extremely sensitive and should not serve specific party interests.

* This Article was first published in The Independent's Weekend Magazine July 15 2011

p.s.: bloggers recently were under attack...freedom of speech not really belongs to us no more :s