BNP reshuffled its central executive committee yesterday, a day after dissolving some city units over their failure to make the anti-government movement a success.

A total of 39 party leaders got new positions.

This sudden reshuffle has caused commotion within the party as acting chairman Tarique Rahman is restructuring the committees, keeping the senior leaders in the dark, BNP insiders said.

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BNP revamping party, wings

They said the issue was not discussed at the meetings of the standing committee, the party's highest policymaking body.

According to the party charter, the acting chairperson will discharge all the duties of the chairperson in the absence of the latter.

And Tarique is now invoking that provision, said party sources.

The BNP charter gives the chairperson the authority to scrap any committee anytime, and the decision would be approved at the subsequent council.

The reshuffle brought younger leaders to important positions, while those with strong organisational abilities have been made advisers to the chairperson, BNP insiders said.

Some leaders who were selected for advisory roles believe they were assigned these positions as a form of punishment.

Apart from the executive body, BNP's international affairs committee has also been restructured. Party sources said the move was made because of the previous committee's failure to maintain close ties with the western countries, China and India.

BNP standing committee member Abdul Moyeen Khan will basically lead the committee to strengthen the relationship with those nations. However, Tarique is the chairman of the committee.

Soon after the January 7 national election, Tarique started working on restructuring the party's executive committee. There will be significant changes in the full committee in phases, with the introduction of new members, said a BNP leader familiar with the issue.

"Young leaders loyal to Tarique Rahman will be given important positions," said a senior BNP leader wishing not to be named.

A number of mid-ranking influential BNP leaders said Tarique is in fact  building his own circle by restructuring the committees to establish his absolute control over the party.

"He is doing this to make sure nobody challenges his decisions in future," said a BNP leader.

Many committees have already expired since the party held its last national council in 2017.

The BNP constitution stipulates that a council should be held every three years. However, restructuring of its committees are being announced through press releases.

"The issue of reorganising was discussed at the party forum, but we were not informed when and how it would happen," a senior leader told The Daily Star yesterday wishing anonymity.

Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, a standing committee member, said the decision on revamping the party was made earlier and is now being put into action.

On Thursday night, BNP dissolved the convening committees of its Dhaka south and north city units. It also announced dissolution of the convening committees of its Chattogram and Barishal city units.

The central committee of Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal, led by President Sultan Salahuddin Tuku and General Secretary Abdul Monayem Munna, has also been dissolved.

Some BNP leaders, including Zahir Uddin Swapan, Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Mujibur Rahman Sarwar, Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, and Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu, have been made adviser to the party chairperson.

Some party leaders said Swapan, Khokon, Sarwar and Alal have been punished through these appointments.

Syed Emran Saleh Prince and Shahiduddin Chowdhury Annie have been promoted to joint secretaries general from organising secretaries.

Meanwhile, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, BNP's student front, announced its full-fledged 260-member committee yesterday, about three and a half months after the formation of its partial committee.

Rakibul Islam Rakib and Nasir Uddin Nasir have been made president and general secretary of the new committee respectively.

As many as 41 leaders have been given the posts of vice president, one has been made senior joint general secretary, and 111 have been named as joint general secretaries.

The Daily Star has launched a new series of talk show ‘The Election Talks 2018’ where experts are analysing all aspects of the upcoming general elections, contemporary politics, events and incidents.

In today’s episode of ‘The Election Talks 2018’, Sharmeen Murshid, chief executive officer of a non-government organisation and local election observer group ‘Brotee’, talks with The Daily Star about the upcoming election.

She sheds light on the inclusion process of election observers for the 11th national polls on a one-to-one with Shakhawat Liton, planning editor of The Daily Star.

While listing the election observers this time, the election commission has excluded many experienced observes while many election observer groups were included who are not known to us, she said.

Mentioning that the scope of observing the election is getting reduced, she said, "This shrunken scope has raised questions in our minds."

As an example, she said that during the 2008 elections, number of total international election observers were 593 and local observers were 1,00,059 from 75 organisations. But this time there are only 25 to 26 thousand local observers and under 100 international observers, according to election commission data.   

Watch the video to know more!

From what is unfolding before us, it seems we are set to be in a situation that can be described as "the rule of the AL, for the AL and by the AL." Campaigning has started, there are random processions on the main streets, a little boat is making the rounds and blaring cacophonous film songs on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, poster printers are relieved that they will not have to fold the business thanks to the dum…, oh sorry, "independent candidates," 27 registered parties are participating—doesn't matter if nobody has ever heard of most of them—and relatives of aspirants are rushing to the constituencies to liven up the campaign partying. No doubt, in the days to follow, the festivities will be accentuated with mammoth mejbaan (feasts) and huge gatherings. These also coincide with pitha season; nothing could be sweeter.

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Elections without choice: A leaf out of autocrats’ playbook

That the police have earmarked certain polling centres to be troublesome and may beef up security, and that even the armed forces will be deployed, give an added veneer of authenticity to the whole affair. What's an election without a few violent clashes between rival candidates and their minions, even if they both belong to the same side of the game?

The stage may look and even feel like that put up for a real election. Yet, somehow, the smell of something rotting just underneath won't go away.

That the police have earmarked certain polling centres to be troublesome and may beef up security, and that even the armed forces will be deployed, give an added veneer of authenticity to the whole affair. What's an election without a few violent clashes between rival candidates and their minions, even if they both belong to the same side of the game?

By eliminating any dialogue with the only real opposition party, BNP, the situation can only be compared to a fixed game—with many being reluctant to go all the way to the stadium. Already, at least 1,000 BNP leaders and activists have reportedly been jailed since August in an unprecedentedly speedy series of trials. The remaining leaders are on the run with some of their family members being detained by the police after not finding the accused individual. Perhaps the most jarring example of clamping down on the opposition was the arrests of BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and the party's standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury in a case over assaulting a policeman on October 28. Fakhrul has been denied bail three times so far. Before this, BNP's staunch refusal to join the election under the present government, and the ruling party's determination to do just that, ensured that there was little ground for a dialogue that could lead to a solution.

Despite all the wheeling and dealing, the EC's apparent sternness about electoral code and all the meticulous event planning, the brewing resentment of the public cannot be wished away. People are suffering—the long lines at the TCB (Trading Corporation of Bangladesh) trucks and the desperate look of the regular bazaar goer are dead giveaways. Small businesses dependent on imported goods are floundering under the dollar crisis, having failed to open Letters of Credit at the banks. The families of opposition leaders and activists are under tremendous pressure, psychologically and financially, having to fight the multiple cases filed against their loved ones. And let's not forget the forgotten: those who continue to languish in jail under the former Digital Security Act and other draconian laws for the crime of expressing dissent, and also those who have been disappeared without a trace.

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Crackdown, groupthink, and the dialogue that didn’t happen

There is also the inconvenience of an already severely stressed economy, which will continue to be in crisis mode, under myriad pressures. Due dates of foreign debt payments, a bleeding financial sector riddled by scams, thousands of crores in defaulted loans, private and government banks struggling with liquidity, low remittances, unhappy garment workers—the list is painfully and overwhelmingly long.

Despite all this, we may apparently see respectable turnouts at the polls. AL-nominated and AL independent candidates (there are 382 of the latter, contesting 221 seats) will have enough AL supporters to represent a decent percentage. Even Jatiya Party will attract its own followers, especially if given a clear field. The obscure parties fighting for the "eagle" or "truck" signs will at least get a few of their family members to vote for them. "A participatory, free, and fair election," the EC will gleefully announce.

But while everything on the surface has been fixed and made sparkly, putrid bubbles are brewing under the surface; not likely to be contained at any time. Will the predictable victors be ready to face the blow-up?

Aasha Mehreen Amin is joint editor at The Daily Star.

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

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BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s adviser Inam Ahmed Chowdhury, who was nomination seeker of the opposition party from Sylhet-1, officially joined the ruling Awami League today.

He formally joined the ruling party after offering bouquet of flower to AL President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Gono Bhaban this evening.

A member of prime minister's press wing confirmed the development to The Daily Star.

The High Court today granted anticipatory bail for eight weeks to actors Rafiath Rashid Mithila and Sabnam Faria in a case filed against them over fraud -- for their involvement with e-commerce platform Evaly.

The HC bench of Justice Jahangir Hossain Selim and Justice Md Atoar Rahman granted them bail following two separate petitions filed by them seeking anticipatory bail in the case.

The accused petitioners appeared before the bench for bail during hearing of the petitions.

On December 4, am aggrieved customer of Evaly -- Saad Sam Rahman -- filed the case with Dhanmondi Police Station against nine people including Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel, Chairman Shamima Nasrin, musician Tahsan Khan, and actors Mithila and Faria.

The other accused in the case are: Akash, Arif, Taher and Md Abu Taish Kayes.

According to the case, celebrities Tahsan, Mithila and Faria were in different positions at Evaly. Because of their presence and their various promotional talks, Saad Sam invested Tk 3,18,000 in Evaly.

The plaintiff alleged that he was deceived because of the promotional talks of the celebrities.

Tahsan was the Goodwill Ambassador of Evaly, and Mithila was associated with Evaly as the face of the company's lifestyle products. Faria joined as Chief Public Relations Officer.