Dhaka, Bangladesh – Hasanul Islam Ador, an elected consultant in a rural space in southern Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district, was bowled over when a gaggle of officers in plain garments barged into his house final week.
Ador stated the officers threatened him, saying he ought to cease campaigning for Zafar Alam, an impartial candidate for the nationwide election to be held on Sunday.
Alam is a present member of parliament representing Cox’s Bazar for the ruling Awami League (AL) get together, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
When Alam did not safe his get together’s nomination for this 12 months’s election, he was requested by the get together management to run as an impartial contender – one in every of what analysts and critics say are a whole bunch of so-called “dummy” candidates propped by the get together to make the election look free and truthful.
Hasina, 76, has been in energy for 15 straight years – the longest-serving chief in Bangladesh’s historical past.
Her tenure has been marked by allegations of authoritarian rule, concentrating on of the opposition, the suppression of individuals’s rights, and large-scale vote rigging in elections held to maintain her in energy.
As she seeks a document fourth time period in Sunday’s vote, the primary opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Occasion (BNP), led by ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, has determined to boycott the vote, because it did in 2014.
Zia, 78, was jailed for greater than two years over corruption prices and was moved to accommodate arrest over well being considerations in 2020. She denies the allegation, saying her conviction was politically motivated.
The BNP says it doesn’t have any confidence in Hasina presiding over a free and truthful election. It demanded Hasina step right down to make manner for a caretaker authorities to organise the vote.
However the demand was met with a extreme authorities crackdown, which noticed tens of 1000’s of BNP members arrested and at the very least 11 of them killed by safety forces throughout road protests, elevating considerations over legitimate elections within the clothes hub of the world.
In September, the US, the highest purchaser of Bangladeshi clothes, stated it was imposing a visa ban on the nation’s officers who undermine the democratic election course of.
Two months later, Human Rights Watch condemned the arrests of opposition members and stated “the government’s autocratic crackdown will jeopardise future economic cooperation” with different nations.
‘Mockery of our democracy’
For the reason that opposition’s boycott name, Hasina’s get together had been scrambling to discipline impartial – or “dummy” – candidates to make the election look truthful.
The “competitive make-up”, as analysts name the transfer, noticed the Awami League fielding candidates like Alam within the fray, however on the similar time, making certain the poll doesn’t throw up any surprises for the get together.
To make sure the outcomes are in favour of the ruling get together, the federal government is allegedly utilizing legislation enforcement equipment and intelligence businesses to intimidate and threaten impartial candidates.
“The people who barged into my home were from an intelligence agency,” Ador instructed Al Jazeera. “They came to my house and threatened me to stop campaigning for Ahmed and seek votes for a particular candidate.”
Ador and greater than a dozen different native representatives in Alam’s constituency wrote a letter to the Bangladesh Election Fee, saying “an intelligence agency had put immense pressure and threatened them” to work for an Awami League candidate.
The fee acknowledged receiving such a letter to Al Jazeera, with election officers saying they had been “seriously looking into the complaint”.
With out the primary political opposition contesting, there’s little uncertainty as to what the outcomes of the Sunday vote will probably be.
“This election is a charade,” distinguished Bangladeshi rights activist Shahidul Alam instructed Al Jazeera. “It’s a mockery of our democracy – whatever is left of it.”
The BNP has not solely boycotted the election however has additionally introduced a non-cooperation motion, asking individuals to not vote on Sunday.
Because of this, the ruling Awami League’s principal concern for the time being is to make sure a “reasonable” voter turnout, in accordance with its official Bahauddin Nasim. To try this, the get together has allegedly resorted to “undue” measures.
In lots of constituencies, members of the ruling get together have been accused of threatening to strip individuals of the federal government’s social advantages schemes in the event that they fail to seem in polling cubicles on election day.
Almost 13 million individuals, belonging to probably the most weak teams, obtain direct social advantages from the federal government, in accordance with the finance ministry’s information. Furthermore, getting on the federal government checklist of beneficiaries is a course of involving 473 elected officers, practically all of them belonging to the Awami League.
Movies, unverified by Al Jazeera, are viral on Bangladeshi social media, purportedly displaying ruling get together officers threatening the voters.
Rumeen Farhana, the BNP’s worldwide affairs secretary, instructed Al Jazeera that collaborating in an election, realizing it will likely be rigged, was “suicidal and a betrayal to the thousands who were hurt, detained, tortured, or killed for democracy and free speech”.
“People of this country will remember this election as the most absurd and illegitimate one in its history,” she stated.
‘Strategy of the autocrats’
Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute on the Wilson Middle in the US, stated the BNP boycott does the Awami League a “big favour by making it harder for Western countries to conclude that the election is fraudulent”.
“If the Awami League wins 95 percent of the vote, one can’t accuse the party of stealing votes because it will essentially be running against itself,” Kugelman instructed Al Jazeera.
He stated the sample of occasions resulting in the BNP’s determination to boycott must be of concern to the West.
“Arrests, jailings, a broader crackdown on dissent, and especially the Awami League’s refusal to release top BNP leaders from jail as the election drew closer – all of this will shape the thinking of Washington and other capitals post-election,” he stated.
Mohammad A Arafat, Awami League candidate from capital Dhaka, stated he was “baffled by the notion that the winner of this election will not get legitimacy from the Western countries”.
“We did whatever we could. We strengthened our Election Commission and created a level playing field for all political parties. If BNP didn’t want to join, it’s their choice. Many parties have taken part in the election,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
Ali Riaz, distinguished professor of politics and authorities on the Illinois State College within the US, thinks the BNP’s absence from the vote was at all times probably the most most popular choice for the Awami League.
“Forcing the main opposition out of the election process is a strategy autocrats around the world tend to prefer,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
Riaz stated the upcoming vote on Sunday doesn’t meet the “basic standard of an election”.
“The entire exercise looks like a stage-managed show to provide a veneer of legal legitimacy which is otherwise just dividing the parliamentary seats among allies,” he stated. “I don’t think the winner will gain legitimacy from the Western countries.”
Kugelman, nonetheless, stated he didn’t anticipate the Western capitals to chop ties with Dhaka.
“That would be rash, not to mention imprudent, especially given the close commercial ties they have with Bangladesh and the perceived strategic importance of Bangladesh in the context of the power competition in the Indo-Pacific,” he stated.
“But I do think if Washington and other Western capitals conclude the election isn’t credible – and it’s hard to assess it as credible when the main opposition party sits it out – there is a chance that they could review future relations with Dhaka, with downgrading of ties a possibility.”