‘Dummy’ candidates, coerced voting: Inside Bangladesh’s election ‘charade’ | Elections News

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Hasanul Islam Ador, an elected consultant in a rural space in southern Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district, was stunned when a bunch of officers in plain garments barged into his residence final week.

Ador mentioned the officers threatened him, saying he ought to cease campaigning for Zafar Alam, an impartial candidate for the nationwide election to be held on Sunday.

Alam is a present member of parliament representing Cox’s Bazar for the ruling Awami League (AL) get together, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

When Alam did not safe his get together’s nomination for this yr’s election, he was requested by the get together management to run as an impartial contender – one in every of what analysts and critics say are tons of of so-called “dummy” candidates propped by the get together to make the election look free and truthful.

Hasina, 76, has been in energy for 15 straight years – the longest-serving chief in Bangladesh’s historical past.

Her tenure has been marked by allegations of authoritarian rule, focusing on of the opposition, the suppression of individuals’s rights, and large-scale vote rigging in elections held to maintain her in energy.

As she seeks a file fourth time period in Sunday’s vote, the primary opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Get together (BNP), led by ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, has decided to boycott the vote, because it did in 2014.

Zia, 78, was jailed for greater than two years over corruption costs and was moved to accommodate arrest over well being issues in 2020. She denies the allegation, saying her conviction was politically motivated.

The BNP says it doesn’t have any confidence in Hasina presiding over a free and truthful election. It demanded Hasina step all the way down to make approach for a caretaker authorities to organise the vote.

However the demand was met with a extreme authorities crackdown, which noticed tens of 1000’s of BNP members arrested and at the least 11 of them killed by safety forces throughout avenue protests, elevating issues over legitimate elections within the garments hub of the world.

In September, the USA, the highest purchaser of Bangladeshi clothes, mentioned it was imposing a visa ban on the nation’s officers who undermine the democratic election course of.

Two months later, Human Rights Watch condemned the arrests of opposition members and mentioned “the federal government’s autocratic crackdown will jeopardise future financial cooperation” with different international locations.

‘Mockery of our democracy’

For the reason that opposition’s boycott name, Hasina’s get together had been scrambling to discipline impartial – or “dummy” – candidates to make the election look truthful.

The “aggressive make-up”, as analysts name the transfer, noticed the Awami League fielding candidates like Alam within the fray, however on the similar time, guaranteeing the poll doesn’t throw up any surprises for the get together.

To make sure the outcomes are in favour of the ruling get together, the federal government is allegedly utilizing regulation enforcement equipment and intelligence companies to intimidate and threaten impartial candidates.

“The individuals who barged into my residence had been from an intelligence company,” Ador instructed Al Jazeera. “They got here to my home and threatened me to cease campaigning for Ahmed and search votes for a specific candidate.”

Ador and greater than a dozen different native representatives in Alam’s constituency wrote a letter to the Bangladesh Election Fee, saying “an intelligence company had put immense stress and threatened them” to work for an Awami League candidate.

The fee acknowledged receiving such a letter to Al Jazeera, with election officers saying they had been “critically trying into the criticism”.

With out the primary political opposition contesting, there’s little uncertainty as to what the outcomes of the Sunday vote shall be.

“This election is a charade,” outstanding Bangladeshi rights activist Shahidul Alam instructed Al Jazeera. “It’s a mockery of our democracy – no matter is left of it.”

The BNP has not solely boycotted the election however has additionally introduced a non-cooperation motion, asking folks to not vote on Sunday.

Consequently, the ruling Awami League’s foremost concern in the meanwhile is to make sure a “cheap” voter turnout, in keeping with its official Bahauddin Nasim. To do this, the get together has allegedly resorted to “undue” measures.

In lots of constituencies, members of the ruling get together have been accused of threatening to strip folks of the federal government’s social advantages schemes in the event that they fail to look in polling cubicles on election day.

Practically 13 million folks, belonging to probably the most susceptible teams, obtain direct social advantages from the federal government, in keeping with the finance ministry’s information. Furthermore, getting on the federal government record of beneficiaries is a course of involving 473 elected officers, almost all of them belonging to the Awami League.

Movies, unverified by Al Jazeera, are viral on Bangladeshi social media, purportedly displaying ruling get together officers threatening the voters.

Rumeen Farhana, the BNP’s worldwide affairs secretary, instructed Al Jazeera that collaborating in an election, realizing it is going to be rigged, was “suicidal and a betrayal to the 1000’s who had been damage, detained, tortured, or killed for democracy and free speech”.

“Folks of this nation will keep in mind this election as probably the most absurd and illegitimate one in its historical past,” she mentioned.

‘Technique of the autocrats’

Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute on the Wilson Middle in the USA, mentioned the BNP boycott does the Awami League a “large favour by making it more durable for Western international locations to conclude that the election is fraudulent”.

“If the Awami League wins 95 p.c of the vote, one can’t accuse the get together of stealing votes as a result of it would basically be operating towards itself,” Kugelman instructed Al Jazeera.

He mentioned the sample of occasions resulting in the BNP’s determination to boycott ought to be of concern to the West.

“Arrests, jailings, a broader crackdown on dissent, and particularly the Awami League’s refusal to launch prime BNP leaders from jail because the election drew nearer – all of it will form the considering of Washington and different capitals post-election,” he mentioned.

Mohammad A Arafat, Awami League candidate from capital Dhaka, mentioned he was “baffled by the notion that the winner of this election won’t get legitimacy from the Western international locations”.

“We did no matter we might. We strengthened our Election Fee and created a stage enjoying discipline for all political events. If BNP didn’t wish to be a part of, it’s their alternative. Many events have taken half within the election,” he instructed Al Jazeera.

Ali Riaz, distinguished professor of politics and authorities on the Illinois State College within the US, thinks the BNP’s absence from the vote was at all times probably the most most well-liked possibility for the Awami League.

“Forcing the primary opposition out of the election course of is a technique autocrats all over the world are likely to desire,” he instructed Al Jazeera.

Riaz mentioned the upcoming vote on Sunday doesn’t meet the “primary commonplace of an election”.

“Your complete train seems like a stage-managed present to supply a veneer of authorized legitimacy which is in any other case simply dividing the parliamentary seats amongst allies,” he mentioned. “I don’t assume the winner will acquire legitimacy from the Western international locations.”

Kugelman, nonetheless, mentioned he didn’t count on the Western capitals to chop ties with Dhaka.

“That may be rash, to not point out imprudent, particularly given the shut industrial ties they’ve with Bangladesh and the perceived strategic significance of Bangladesh within the context of the facility competitors within the Indo-Pacific,” he mentioned.

“However I do assume if Washington and different Western capitals conclude the election isn’t credible – and it’s exhausting to evaluate it as credible when the primary opposition get together sits it out – there’s a likelihood that they might assessment future relations with Dhaka, with downgrading of ties a chance.”