Difference over the timeline for elections should not grow wider

Mostafa Kamal Majumder

Mostafa Kamal Majumder

In an important meeting held today (Wednesday) at the State Guest House Jamuna, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Chief Adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus discussed the timeline for the upcoming national elections. The meeting, which lasted two hours, highlighted significant differences in their perspectives on the election schedule and the Interim Government's priorities.

Dr. Yunus reiterated his stance that the elections should be held between December 2025 and June 2026, emphasising the need to complete comprehensive state reforms before calling general elections. He argued that these reforms are essential to ensure a fair and transparent electoral process and to address long-standing structural issues within the state.

However, Mirza Fakhrul expressed strong dissatisfaction with this approach, stating that the BNP believes the elections should be held by December 2025. He warned that delaying the elections beyond this point could exacerbate the country's political and social instability. Fakhrul also criticised the Interim Government for not providing a clear roadmap or timeline for the elections, which he deemed crucial for restoring public confidence.

The BNP delegation, led by Fakhrul, argued that the time until December 2025 is sufficient to implement urgent reforms, which could then be continued by the next elected government. They emphasised that delaying the elections under the pretext of state restructuring could lead to further uncertainty and unrest.

The meeting underscored the growing tension between the BNP and the interim government over the election timeline, with both sides holding firm to their positions. It is to be noted that some political workers belonging to the newly formed National Citizens Party (NCP) advocate for a 5-year term for the present Interim Government headed by Dr. Yunus. Their argument is, election should be called only after completing the implementation of reforms. 

Reform hardliners say the July mass upsurge that ended nearly 16 years of fascist rule has created a golden opportunity to reform the statecraft and this should not be allowed to go in vain. They interpret BNP’s demand for election by December next as an expression of the party’s lack of patience for power. BNP and its political allies on the other hand maintain that they had been working on ‘repair of statecraft’for over three years and their 31-point programme announced three years ago for the purpose was a testament to this. BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman said in a statement the other day that their state reform programme was announced defying the fascist rulers. 

Political pundits see some underlying reasons for the tension over the election timeline. They said the launching of a new political party with backing from the corridors of power was a signal of political maueuvring ahead of the elections. The requisitioning of buses to bring people to the maiden mass rally of the new party is seen as a breach of neutrality of the government. Seeking more time before calling national elections might also be buying time for the new party to organise, find and liaise with political allies to float a political platform which can emerge as an alternative to the BNP and its political allies. Already BNP has been subjected to verbal attacks for its workers taking roles of extortionists left vacant by elements of the ousted Awami League at different levels. A fierce media campaign has been launched in the social media against the party which suffered most of the power abuses of the nearly 16 years of fascist rule for being in the front line of the oust-government movement.  

Reform hardliners say BNP’s movement did not succeed in 15 years because of compromises its leaders made with the ruling party and that agents of fascist rulers were active inside it all these years. BNP leaders say the July uprising was possible because BNP and its allies had taken the people’s movement to a boiling point and an explosion was a matter of time. The uprising was crowned with success because of participation all people including their workers, supporters and sympathisers. 

Despite the differences of opinion on the appropriate timeline for the next elections, the BNP and its political allies do not want the Interim Government, formed on the basis of consensus, to fail. A senior leader of the BNP said the other day notwithstanding the criticisms being made against their party they are least likely to call their critics rivals. Reform hardliners however term BNP demand for election by next December as its lust for power and believe that by making such a call the party as increasingly becoming irrelevant to the people who want reform of the state before anything else. They also argue that Dr. Yunus being a neutral as well as a knowledgeable person is best suited to do reform the state by charting terrains which will be difficult for the political parties to tread. Leaders of the BNP and its allies say they find one year and a half good-enough time to identify and initiate reforms. The more time the Interim Government takes the more it would go out of focus and lose popularity, they say.             

We believe the difference over the timeline for elections should not grow wider. As the political landscape continues to evolve, the question of when the elections will be held should not continue to remain wide open for the people to guess, like the tenure of the Interim Government that has not been fixed. All this relates to Bangladesh's future. People are at liberty to stand for this side or the other side of the coin. But it needs to be emphasised that just as the Interim government has no substitute for steering the reforms, the organised democrartic political parties standing for reforms and capable of shouldering the task of running the state are nation’s assets.  

(A writer and researcher, the author is a veteran journalist who steerted the launch of two national newspapers and the growth of another. He is now the editor of GreenWatch Dhaka )