Today’s episode of ‘The Election Talks 2018’ brings former student politician and journalist Subhash Singha Roy, and political analyst Dr Sakhawat Hossain.

Subhash, a former leader of Bangladesh Chhatra League and a journalist, spoke about the fairness of the election and expressed his views over the allegations against ruling party.

Dr Sakhawat, on the other hand, spoke about the harassment, arrests and cases against opposition political activists to reflect on the situation on the field now.

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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.   

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Two makeshift election campaign camps of the local BNP candidate in Meherpur have been vandalised.

BNP candidate of Meherpur-2 constituency, Javed Masud Milton blamed ruling Awami League for it, our Kushtia correspondent reports.

He alleged, ruling party activists led by local UP Member Liton Hosen vandalized two of his election camps in Chatian and Bamundi areas.

He claimed, he did not get any help from police or the returning officer of the area to this end.

UP Member Liton has denied his involvement and said he did not know who were behind the attacks.

Shukumar Biswas, officer-in-charge of Gangni Police Station, said that nobody filed any complaint over the incidents.

BNP candidates of Dhaka-4 and Dhaka-19 constituencies are fearing further attacks on their campaigns and activists.

They both complained of inaction from the authorities despite repeated complaints, they claimed at separate press conferences today.

Dhaka-4 candidate Alhaj Salauddin Ahmed held a press conference in his Shyampur residence, alleging of police threats to his supporters.

Expressing fear for his life and family, he alleged law enforcers are continuing drives to arrest and harass the opposition leaders and activists.

“Several times I have lodged complaints to the Election Commission in this regard but did not get any response,” he said.

Dhaka-19 candidate Dr Dewan Mohammad Salauddin Babu alleged police, with help of ruling Awami League activists, are carrying out mass arrests of BNP activists.

He claimed arrests of at least 19 top BNP activists in the locality and attack and vandalism of BNP’s campaign offices in the area.

Fearing further vandalism, he said he has halted the election campaign for a few days. He too alleged of authorities’ inaction despite repeated complaints.

Today’s episode of The Daily Star’s ‘The Election Talks 2018’ brings Dr Akbar Ali Khan, former adviser to a caretaker government, to the studio.

Dr Khan sheds light on the state of democracy in the country and the promises made by political parties ahead of the election in a tete-e-tete with Shakhawat Liton, planning editor of The Daily Star.

According to his opinion, “if this election fails then it will be a massive harm for democracy”.

“No opposition party of Bangladesh believes that a fair election can take place without a caretaker government. But this time they have taken the risk of contesting the polls under a partisan government,” he shares.

“So, if this election fails then it will be very harmful for the democracy,” he added.

Regarding the election manifestos of the political parties, he said that no real progress has been made in the political culture of the country. The manifestos are just the continuation of the past activities and present situation of the parties, he said.

Actually, even the voters are not concerned with all the aspects of the manifestos, he said.

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