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In the process of fifty-two years after independence, the practice of democracy has been repeatedly disrupted. But democracy, which stumbled at the beginning, is still on its way. The first general election was held in 1973 in the independent country. 1091 candidates from 14 parties participated in that election. Awami League won by getting 73 percent of the votes cast and got a total seat of 282. JASAD got 6.52 percent of the votes and won only 1 seat out of 273 seats contested. Five independent candidates also won that election. In 1975, the military ruler Ziaur Rahman came to power by killing Bangabandhu and his family, killing national leaders in prison, and playing with democracy, and elections began.
In 1977, Ziaur Rahman sought popular support to legitimise his power in a referendum. 88.5 percent of voters turned out to vote, the state news agency announced. History testifies to the fact that one or two percent of the votes were actually not counted. Similarly, Ziaur Rahman In 1978, there was a rigged vote in another presidential election to restore him to the presidency from military rule, with him as a candidate for the Democratic Alliance.
General Osmani contested. Ziaur Rahman officially announced that he got 77 percent of the votes cast for him. Again, before the general election in 1979, Ziaur Rahman entered the field of politics by forming the BNP. 2115 candidates from 29 parties contested. BNP won 207 out of 300 seats in parliament. The Awami League (Malek) won 39 seats by getting 25 percent of the total votes. Awami League (Mizan) won two seats with 0.36 percent votes; Muslim League and IDL contested 266 seats with 10 percent votes and 20 seats. JSD contested 240 seats and got 5 percent of the votes and eight seats. NAP (MO:) With 202 percent of the votes and one seat, the Ekta Party got one seat, and 422 independent candidates got 10 percent of the votes and 16 seats. In that election, BNP candidates alleged that the government had failed them in calculations and showed others as winners in the same way.
In the 1981 election, 55.47 percent of voters came to vote. Abdus Sattar was elected president by getting 65 percent of the vote. Again, in the 1986 election, the result was that the Jatiya Party won 153 seats by competing in 300 seats with 1 crore 21 lakh votes. 26 percent of the votes were collected in 256 seats, and the Awami League got 75 lakh votes and 76 seats. Jamaat won 10 seats with 4 percent of the votes. Mani Singh's Communist Party won five seats with two and a half lakh votes. Md: NAP gets two, NAP, Bakshal three, Jasad four, Jasad (Siraj) three, Muslim League four, Workers Party three, and Independents get 32 seats. Again, in 1988, the voter turnout was a little over 1 percent.
However, the Election Commission claims that 55 percent of people have voted. The Jatiya Party won 251 seats. Unidentified political fortune-seeker with 76 political parties 32 lakh votes and 18 seats, 25 independent MPs, Freedom Party two, and Shahjahan Siraj three seats. Basically, Ziaur Rahman and Ershad turned the election into a game. After the fall of Ershad, the second phase was under the caretaker government in 1991. The election conducted under Justice Sahabuddin Ahmed on February 27 was widely accepted. And it is said that the second journey of democracy started in Bangladesh. In the 1991 parliament, 76 parties and 2,350 candidates participated. There were 424 independent candidates. The results show that BNP 140, Awami League 88, JPA 35, Jamaat 18, CPB 5, Bakshal 5, Independent 3, NAP (MoD) 1, Demokrati Party 1, Workers Party 1, Jasad Siraj 1, Islami Oikyajot 1, and NDP 1 won the seats. The total voter turnout was 55.54 percent.
In power, the BNP returned to its old form, scrapped the caretaker system, and prepared for elections under a party government. Awami League formed movement against the government. Then, elections happened under the leadership of Justice Habibur Rahman. The Awami League came to power after 21 years of elections under a caretaker government. The Awami League got 146 seats by getting 37.44 percent of the votes. BNP got 116 seats by getting 33.60 percent votes, Jatiya Party got 32 seats by getting 16.40 percent votes, and Jamaat got 3 seats by getting 8.61 percent votes. Again, on October 1, 2001, the four-party coalition won with a two-thirds majority. In the election, BNP contested in 252 seats and won 193 seats by getting 40.97 percent of the votes. Awami League got 40.13 percent votes in 300 seats and got 62 seats; Jatiya Party got 7.25 percent votes in 281 seats and got 14 seats; Jamaat got 4.28 percent votes in 31 seats and won 17 seats. BNP's 2001 corruption regime, the preparation of a fake voter list, and efforts to increase the retirement age of judges and make a party-choice judge the head of the caretaker government all failed when the president and the caretaker government head Ban. An army-backed caretaker government of eleven was born on December 29, 2008. Jatiya Party was the coalition partner of the Awami League in this election of alliances and grand alliances. On the other hand, the 20-party alliance was led by the BNP. In the election, the Awami League won 259 seats by getting 49 percent of the votes.
BNP got 33.2 percent of the votes and won 30 seats. The Jatiya Party won 27 seats with 7 percent of the votes. Jamaat won two seats by getting 4.6 percent of the votes. Hasanul Haque Inu and Moin Uddin Khan Badal's party won three seats with the torch mark. 2014 The 10th National Assembly elections were held in Bangladesh. Whereas the main opposition coalition led by Khaleda Zia of the BNP boycotted the election, demanding the reintroduction of the caretaker government system. As a result, out of 300 seats, 234 were won by the Awami League, and in 153 seats, Grand Alliance candidates were elected unopposed, and the election has been termed 'questionable' in various media. Meanwhile, the grand coalition government led by Sheikh Hasina was formed. The National Party, led by Roshan Ershad, is the opposition party in Parliament. However, the role of the opposition has been criticised several times during this period. Later, various incidents of agitation, violence, and the arrest of opponents took place. In 2018, following the same path, BNP took part in the election and announced its withdrawal at the end of the election day.
If several of them won that election, took the oath, and joined the parliament, What the Awami League has done or tried to do is pull up the stumbling democracy of constitutionally organised democracy. tried to No country in the world has a caretaker government system. After the collapse of the Ershad government in 1990, the caretaker government system that was established due to the need for time, the BNP, disrupted that process in 1996, while the Awami League peacefully handed over power to the caretaker chief Latifur Rahman's government in 2001 after 5 years of governance. But in 2001, the BNP again called that process into question by rejecting the caretaker government system. the public There is a chance that the two elections of the League may be questioned, and the Awami League does not deny it. Rather, the leaders of the party accepted it in various ways. The twelfth parliamentary election in Bangladesh is going to be held in the middle of the night, after many uphill climbs and boycotting the votes of one of the country's largest political parties.
Even if the BNP gave a glimpse of the storm at the beginning, in the end, nothing happened. The storm ended with the announcement of a strike on January 7 at the General Voters Centre. It remains to be seen how successful it will be in trying to resist the arrival and burning fire or whether the demoralised BNP field-level leaders and workers will actually enter the field or not. Because during the election campaign, it has been seen that BNP's support workers participated in field campaigns with independent candidates, Jatiya Party, Trinamool BNP, or any other candidate. Boat vs. Awami League or Independent vs. Awami League, by whatever name it is called, the people of Bangladesh who Waiting for the electoral mood, that mood has gathered almost everywhere except in some seats. The participation of the common people is the beauty of democracy. Their participation will shape political democracy.
The writer is a journalist and a columnist.
Messenger/Fameema
