Do these elections indicate a strategy to beat populist politics?
India witnessed a tumultuous time between May 1996 and October 1999 when coalition governments came and left in quick succession.
Bangladesh, since 2018, has been classified as a 'moderate autocracy.'
Since the middle of the 2000s, the world has witnessed a precipitous decline in democratic countries. After almost three decades of proliferation of democratic governance, described by Samuel Huntington as the Third Wave of democracy, the third reverse wave is sweeping the globe.
Bangladesh’s declining score in the EIU Democracy Index should provide an opportunity to discuss not only how EIU has rated Bangladesh, but also how others have characterised the country’s state of democracy—or lack thereof.
The absence of democratic behaviour is no longer hidden under the carpet.
If AL’s victory in the 2014 election was a hollow one, the 2024 victory in the making is nothing short of a Pyrrhic one—a victory which inflicts so much damage that it cannot be considered worthwhile.
As the country is heading towards an exercise that the incumbent is calling an election, it is imperative that we understand what is in the making.
Can citizens be told that their rights are now available because the executive branch of the state is offering them as a gift?
As Bangladesh, facing an unprecedented economic crisis, has entered a negotiation with the IMF for a USD 4.5 billion loan package, a few discussions have ensued in the country.
The protests are not only about the economic woes but also about the system of governance.
A fortuitous combination of several factors in the past few months have brought down the Imran Khan government in Pakistan.
Bangladesh’s abstention in the vote on the Ukraine crisis at the United Nations’ emergency special session on March 3, 2022 deserves much more scrutiny than it has received thus far.
Globally, democracy is in crisis. An array of countries, from newly democratised nations to consolidated democracies, are experiencing severe backsliding.
The 12th Election Commission (EC) of Bangladesh, headed by KM Nurul Huda, completed its tenure on February 14, 2022.
It seems like deja vu in Bangladeshi politics. As President Abdul Hamid is holding dialogues with various political parties to seek suggestions for members to form the search committee for the next Election Commission, it has brought back the memories of 2012 and 2017.
Since the US Department of Treasury and the Department of State imposed sanctions on the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and seven of its current and former officials on December 10, the future of the Bangladesh-US relationship has become a topic of analysis and intense speculation in Bangladeshi media.
This is not how the day marking the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaeda attacks on the United States was expected to be commemorated, but unfortunately, the day has turned out to be not only a day of remembrance, but also of reckoning.
