Jatiya Oikyafront, an alliance of several major opposition parties including BNP and Gono Forum, today revealed their manifesto for the 11th parliamentary election scheduled to be held on December 30. Here are the key points of the manifesto.

• No age limit for entering in government jobs except for police and armed forces.
• Balance of power between PM and President will be brought.
• Deputy Speaker post will be appointed from opposition MPs.
• Road Transport Act will be amended in light of student’s 9-point demands.
• Upper chamber of parliament will be introduced.
• Digital Security Act will be scrapped
• Private practice of government doctors will be banned.
• People will get full freedom regarding expression of opinion.
• Permanent High Court bench will be set up at divisional headquarters.
• Ombudsman to be appointed.
• PSC and JSC exam will be dropped.
• Election-time government will be formed
• Trial of war criminals will continue.
• People aged above 65 will get the facility to visit in all travels at half-price.    
• Freedom of all kinds of mass media will be ensured under an independent press council.
• Commission will be formed to bring change in education system.
• Different minority ministry will be formed to ensure their interest.
• National Security Council to be formed.
• Laundered money will be brought back.
• Minimum age for marriage of a female will be re-fixed to 18 years.
• Extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance will be stopped.
• Incidents of extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance will be investigated.
• Lower court will be brought under complete jurisdiction of Supreme Court. 
• Article 70 of the constitution will be amended.
• Only aggrieved person and government will be able to file defamation case.
• An ombudsman will be appointed to ensure order in health system.
• General practitioner system will be made obligatory for all citizens at metropolitan.
• Nation heroes will be included in the history of liberation war and will be taught in schools and colleges.
• Measures will be taken to ensure no recurrence of one-party rule.
• Stern actions will be taken to bring back order in banking sector.
• Stern actions will be taken fast against those involved in looting in banking sector.
• Legal actions will be taken against those who were involved in looting money from share market.
• Food among ultra poor and insolvent will be distributed free of cost.
• Rationing system will be introduced for workers, farmers and poor people of village and towns.
• Registration process of political parties with the election commission will be easier.
• There will be no direct or indirect control of the government on media.
• Law will be enacted for appointment in all constitutional posts.
• Attorney General will not waste court’s time by filing appeal if HC gives bail to anyone.
• Ongoing development projects will not be stopped.
• Special Tribunal to be formed to investigate corruptions of present government.

Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda today said action will be taken after investigation against those who launched an attack on Gono Forum President and Jatiya Oikyafornt key leader Dr Kamal Hossain yesterday.

Terming the incident sad and unexpected, the CEC said, “The incident is a criminal offence and will be investigated as per the law.  We will send this to the election inquiry committee. They will probe it.”

“Dr Kamal Hossain is a senior citizen and a renowned personality. An attack on him is undesirable and unexpected,” he said.

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Motorcade of Dr Kamal attacked

Huda said this at a press briefing at the Election Commission this afternoon.

WHAT DID CEC SAY ON THE RECENT SPATE OF ATTACKS?

The CEC said a letter will be sent to the Home Ministry tomorrow or the day after to ensure no politician is harassed, said KM Nurul Huda.

However, the CEC reiterated that a level-playing field has been ensured and candidates are electioneering peacefully.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE ATTACK?

Dr Kamal Hossain’s motorcade was allegedly attacked at the Martyred Intellectuals Mausoleum in Mirpur area of Dhaka yesterday morning.

The motorcade came under the attack when Dr Kamal was coming out of the mausoleum after paying tributes to the martyred intellectuals around 9:45am, Latiful Bari Hamim, a staff of the Oikyafront’s media wing, told The Daily Star.

Driver of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) President ASM Abdur Rob, who was with Dr Kamal, was injured while the attackers, chanting slogan “Joy Bangla,” vandalised several vehicles of the motorcade, said Hamim.

However, both Dr Kamal and Rob were unhurt, he further said.

Selimuzzaman, officer-in-charge (OC) of Darussalam Police Station, said police rushed to the spot sensing untoward noise but did not find anyone in the area.

Kamal Hossain was accompanied by some top leaders of Jatiya Oikyafront, including: Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury; BNP leader Abdus Salam; Reza Kibria, son of slain former Awami League Finance Minister Shah AMS Kibria; and others.

They went to the Martyred Intellectuals Mausoleum on the occasion of the Martyred Intellectuals Day yesterday.

Now that the Cumilla City Corporation (CCC) election is over and everything there was to see and hear has been seen and heard, we need to address the elephant in the room. No, it's not the dramatic turnabout that saw the ruling Awami League's candidate win by a razor-thin margin of 343 votes. Or his rival's rejection of the result and subsequent explanations offered by election officials. Or the chaos into which the meeting of rivals descended over the announcement of the result. Or the slow voting caused by EVMs. These problems notwithstanding, the election served up some good moments too, notable among them the absence of violence.

But election memories are notoriously fickle. Recency bias can get the better of us all, and all these moments from one election may soon be forgotten as more elections are held and all eventually shoehorned into mere statistics. The only thing that will probably last, at least in the public mind, is the impression we're left with ahead of the final test in December 2023. Will we feel confident going into the general election? Will we feel concerned? Or will we feel scared?

It is in this context that we have to address the elephant in the room. No, it's not the CCC election but the Election Commission itself, or more specifically, its shocking retreat in the face of opposition from a ruling lawmaker who defied its order to leave the city after violating the "code of conduct". His subsequent tutorial on how the EC should conduct its business only solidified any sense of helplessness the EC may have had, which it seemed to project in two phases: First by expressing its inability to make him leave, and then, on Monday, by further softening its tone through a U-turn on earlier claims of breach of code.

This remarkable turn of events is significant on several levels. First, when the directive was issued, many thought it would be the EC's crowning moment, staking its claim to the full range of its power as given by the constitution. In any turf war, you don't establish your superiority by scaring the odd mastan off but by making a statement move against the biggest/baddest of them. Election, in our part of the world, is but a turf war fought on the electoral space. Over the years, absent a strong opposition, the battle has been fought, silently and rather one-sidedly, between the ruling party and the EC – the real power vs the "perceived" real power, the partisan side vs the people's side. And the last two commissions, frankly, lost their fight as much as their dignity because they didn't have the courage to stand tall in front of it.

The EC directive thus signalled a shift in attitude, a willingness to finally fight back. The picture that emerged from this was of a team that was not afraid to be tough and to do whatever necessary to uphold the sanctity of their office. Fond parallels were drawn with an incident during the first election in Cumilla in 2012, when a minister was forced to leave the city after the then EC threatened to postpone the election if he didn't comply within an hour. If that commission could do it, we told ourselves, this one can too. After all, as experts say, sections 31 and 32 of the code of conduct empower it to mete out penalties for any violations, including the imposition of fines, jail sentence and even cancellation of the candidature of any candidate. Yes, it can even postpone an election too.

But in the end, the EC's big moment turned into a big bag of nothing. Worse, it ended up being a humbling experience for it as it was forced to retract its allegations. The EC even appeared to be apologetic for the inconvenience caused to the lawmaker. You don't see this level of effort or concession when the pride of an opposition leader is hurt. This, in the coming days, will be used as an example of defeat in the EC's first real negotiation with power, and a reference point for any such defeat from here on. And the memory of how powerless it made citizens feel will stay with them.

This is the kind of events that set narratives, or rather, override them. If the EC wanted to establish a narrative that it can deliver a "peaceful, fair and transparent" election – to quote the CEC – it has been overshadowed by the more powerful image of its surrender when faced with real power. When the two images are put side by side, what we have is cause at once for short-term relief and long-term horror.

Relief, because of the experience of an election without violence, if not without hassles. Horror, because of its dire implications for the future of the Election Commission and the electoral system in general.

When the present commission was installed in late February, there was no doubt in anyone's mind about what should be expected of it: to restore public confidence after two highly controversial general elections that tainted Bangladesh's image globally and caused indescribable suffering. The EC, thus, has a very clear role to play: Undo the damage. Damage done to the electoral system. Damage to the voters' trust. Damage to how other stakeholders, including the administration and political parties, approach elections. And damage to the idea of EC itself.

No one said it would be an easy task. But having clarity of purpose can be a source of comfort. And we were led to believe that it can be a source of strength too. All the newly appointed commissioners including the CEC spoke in unison as they vowed to bring opposition parties back to the campaign trail and citizens back to the voting booths, with their trust restored. Perhaps the EC should remember those vows now. It should understand that undertaking real change requires courage. It requires doing away with the old, bureaucratic ways of doing things. It requires challenging the status quo.

Badiuzzaman Bay is an assistant editor at The Daily Star.

As the country gears up for the 12th parliamentary election, it is disheartening to see the landscape marred by laminated and polythene-coated posters, despite a ban on their use by the Election Commission. The problem has been especially prevalent in Dhaka which has been plastered with such posters mostly by ruling party candidates, and to a lesser degree by independents and candidates from smaller parties. The plastic coating is apparently used to protect posters from being ruined by fog. But that doesn't justify breaching a ban meant to reduce the environmental cost of election campaigning.

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It’s time for election campaigns to go green

The proliferation of such posters, however, is but part of a wider concern about environmental degradation in conventional campaigns. Besides plastic pollution, candidates have also been seen using high-volume microphones and loud music across the city, causing discomfort to the public, especially vulnerable groups like the sick, children, and the elderly. The wide distribution of promotional materials like caps and leaflets, which are invariably thrown away, or irresponsible use of disposable items like cups and plates by supporters is also posing a threat to the health of the city.

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Voters without choice are just glorified dummies

This is totally unacceptable. Candidates, many among them future lawmakers, are expected to lead by example, not encourage or be themselves engaged in breaching environmental regulations. Unfortunately, despite having the scope for alternative, modern campaigning practices using digital platforms, our politicians still seem to prefer conventional methods of public engagement. According to a study by the Environment and Social Development Organization (ESDO), the 2020 mayoral election in Dhaka saw the use of a staggering 340 million plastic-coated posters. The number could double this time, the ESDO warns. During a visit to a number of constituencies in Dhaka, our reporter saw plastic-coated posters being used indiscriminately.

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A Potemkin election in Bangladesh?

Who will take responsibility for the environmental repercussions of such actions? Why is the Election Commission failing to prevent them, or punish non-compliant candidates and parties? Experts talked about the importance of including the ban on plastic use in campaigns, imposed on December 25, in the electoral code of conduct. While this may be the appropriate thing to do, the fact is, without proper enforcement, no amount of lawmaking is good enough. While we expect the EC, particularly returning officers, to play an effective role in ensuring compliance of electoral rules, it is the candidates who must recognise their responsibility in this regard and ensure environmentally friendly campaigning practices.

It is heartening to see that the media has been preparing statements based on the information in affidavits submitted by the candidates who are running for parliament. This requirement of submitting affidavits came from a ruling by the high court bench led by Justice Abdul Matin in 2005. The judgement required the candidates running for parliament to submit eight kinds of information with their nomination papers. These include their educational qualifications, criminal records, and assets, income and liabilities of both themselves and their dependents.

The court also directed the Election Commission to disseminate this information so that the people could use it to make informed decisions in casting their votes. The EC, however, failed to disseminate that information. We, on behalf of SHUJAN, have been disseminating this information through the media by preparing comparative statements for each constituency. We also thwarted the sinister efforts by an imposter named Abu Safa who, using false information, tried to overturn the high court judgement.

This idea of disclosure of information about the candidates in the form of affidavits has a history. In 2002, in Union of India vs Association for Democratic Reforms [2002 (3) SCC], the Indian supreme court gave a seminal judgement in which it stated that the right to know about public officials is derived from the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression.

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Of the AL, for the AL, and by the AL

In a second case, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) vs Union of India [2003 (4) SCC], the Supreme Court of India further emphasised the importance of disclosure of antecedents. Using this information, the court opined, the voters could decide whether they would vote for A or B. The court further said that if you don't want to turn democracy into a farce, you have to give the voters this right to have information about the background of the candidates. Bangladesh's judgement of 2005 followed these seminal judgments of the Indian supreme court.

There have been numerous efforts in our country to thwart this judgement. For example, in 2013 there were four city corporation elections: Barisal, Khulna, Rajshahi, and Sylhet. In the previous election, held in 2007, the Awami League mayoral candidates won and the BNP candidates lost. The same candidates ran again in 2013. We compared the affidavits submitted by the same candidates in both elections to see what happened to their income and wealth. What we found was that the income and wealth of the incumbent mayors, who were elected in 2007, skyrocketed. And the wealth and income of those who didn't win in 2007 either remained the same or declined. Thus, it became clear that getting elected was like getting an Aladdin's lamp in one's hands. In other words, anyone occupying an elected office is able to mint money and get rich. We held a press conference to disseminate our findings. In response, Awami League sent a letter to the EC saying that we had defamed them using concocted information. This allegation was totally false as we used the information disclosed by candidates in their affidavits sworn before a magistrate. It should be noted that including false information in an affidavit, sworn before a magistrate, is a criminal offence under section 181 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Yet, we were accused of using misinformation with the intention of defaming the candidates.

The biggest attack came from Sayed Ashraful Islam, the general secretary of Awami League. In 2014, according to a Prothom Alo report, he said that the affidavits have become the tools of character assassination of politicians. Clearly, these were efforts to do away with the requirement of disclosing antecedents by candidates in the form of affidavits. But they forgot one extremely important detail. The demand for disclosures came from the Awami League itself. On July 15, 2005, Sheikh Hasina, the then leader of the opposition, said in a press conference that the candidates must submit her/his own and their dependants' wealth information with their nomination papers. Additionally, they would have to declare if they have any personal stake in any economic activities of the government. She also demanded that those who lied or provided misinformation in their affidavit face strict legal consequences. However, this was not the only instance when Awami League reiterated the importance of disclosure of antecedents of powerful individuals including MPs.

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Politicians’ wealth surge and why nations fail

Before the 2008 parliamentary election, Awami League published its famous election manifesto, Dinbodoler Sanad (Charter for Change), in which it promised to regularly disclose the wealth statements of all powerful people in the government. But unfortunately, the ruling party and the government didn't keep their commitment.

The EC has also not been verifying the information submitted by the candidates. There are widespread allegations of concealing or providing concocted information in the affidavits. A recent newspaper report indicates that at least nine of the ministers didn't declare their dependents' wealth in their affidavits. Notwithstanding the hiding of information, the skyrocketing of income and wealth shown in the affidavits of candidates who are running for the upcoming election reflect an obscene display of riches when many citizens are struggling to make ends meet.

One prime example of a candidate hiding information is Barrister Shahjahan Omar, who went to jail as a senior leader of BNP, then got bail to join Awami League and run for the upcoming election with the boat symbol. He appears to have hidden information about his wealth. More seriously, he did not disclose information about the cases under which he was arrested and bailed. For such non-disclosure, his nomination paper should be declared invalid under section 12(3)(b) of The Representation of the People Order, 1972. However, both the returning officer and the EC cleared Barrister Omar's nomination, allowing him to contest in the election to be held on January 7. Here didn't both the returning officer and the EC violate the law in validating Barrister Omar's nomination paper?

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The facade of a competitive election

In the last few decades, a lot of people have become very rich in our country, mostly through illegal means. They are now trying to "buy" political power by becoming MPs using their ill-gotten money. As a result, over two-thirds of our MPs are now businessmen who have been trying to further their interests using government power. Many of them also hide information in their affidavits. Entry of many of these self-interested individuals to our electoral arena could be blocked if the EC would take the requirement of the submission of affidavits seriously and thoroughly scrutinise them. Unfortunately, despite our repeated efforts, we have not been able to convince the EC to scrutinise the affidavits and disqualify those who hide or submit false information in their affidavits. If the commission lacks capacity to scrutinise the affidavits, they can use the help of the Anti-Corruption Commission and the National Bureau of Revenue for this purpose.

The format for the affidavit developed before the 2008 elections has some serious limitations. We updated the format and shared it with the EC, but received no positive response from the commission. We hope the EC will take it seriously and revise the format and apply it vigorously. We urge it to do its part to clean up our electoral arena by turning the halafnama into amalnama for candidates running for office.

Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar is secretary of SHUJAN: Citizens for Good Governance.

Views expressed in this article are the author's own.

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