With general elections in Bangladesh due in January next year, Sheikh Hasina Wajed and Begum Khaleda Zia, leaders of the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party ( BNP ) are poised for a showdown. The Jammat-el-Islami is now out of the combat. So far the two parties faced each other only in street fights. But democracy calls for parleys. For the first time in a decade, Hasina rang up Khaleda and it is a breakthrough in the country’s electoral process. Of course, the political deadlock continues. There was no move towards reconciliation. Zia refused to call off her party’s 48 hour shutdown. Violence and murder still ravage the country. It is time two sides realized that dialogue was the best means of ending the Bangla crises. There is nothing unusual about the two parties being poles apart on different issues. But street politics is not the solution.
Local elections in the past few months indicated the sagging popularity of Hasina’s government. It is in spite of the elimination of the Jammat and the youth agitating for a secular polity. The government’s crackdown on terrorists should be a plus point. Elections are necessary for a change of government. The incumbent government is allowed by the Constitution to hold the polls on schedule. The experience of an army -backed interim government in the past left a bitter taste in the mouth. Hasina has suggested an all-party government to conduct the elections. It is a sop to the opposition. But Khaleda wants her to step down for the period. It does not seem she will relent. But free and fair elections are necessary to install a truly representative government to restore law and order and effect economic development. The World Bank has already lowered Bangladesh’s projected growth rate to 5.7% from 6.2%.
