Dhaka: It was almost like a semifinal-match before the general election of Bangladesh parliament. The day counting was held on the annual election of National Press Club in Dhaka, thousands of journalists and their supporters gathered anxiously to know the result of the keenly fought election of the Press Club. Even politicians were waiting for the results which may give an indication for the upcoming general election to be held on 30th December next week.
Every section of the society in Bangladesh is deeply polarised as pro-liberation and anti-liberation forces. And journalists community is no exception. Though main opposition party BNP led by jailed leader Begum Khaleda Zia has some members who are known as Muktijodhha yet pro –Awami league section easily painted them as pro-Pakistan because of their alliance with right-wing Jamiat Islami who are known as anti-liberation forces in the country and many of them were hanged during last five years as war criminal.
Finally, the results were out. Openly journalists were saying it was a victory of the pro-Awami League journalists. One senior journalist told about the outcome, "If we lost this election then it will have a huge impact in the Parliament election." Though the Journalist, an Editor of local daily won but not so easy as expected. The opposition candidate is one of the Vice Presidents of BNP gave a tough time to the pro-Awami League President Saiful Islam.
One can easily infer that ruling Awami League has an advantage despite facing ten years of incumbency but the outcome of the result may not be same as last time. In the capital city, Dhaka one can't find an election temperature because of main opposition parties are not seen openly campaigning for their candidate. The city looks like any other time. Posters, billboards are less in number. The election commission has issued a guideline for campaigning that candidates are allowed to put up only black-white posters. The absence of coloured posters made the election a little colourless, no doubt. But the picture is quite different in outskirts of the city and beyond.
The general election of the country has again created an atmosphere of a fierce contest in rural Bangladesh because of participation of main opposition. There was a buzz that like last time main opposition party BNP may withdraw from the election battle on the charge of the absence of a level playing field. But one senior leader of BNP Abul-Al-Mintoo scotched the rumour and said," though there is no level playing field we would participate in the election. This is the time we can propagate our view against the anti-people government."
After four years of politics from the streets, the BNP, which boycotted the 2014 elections in protest against the absence of a caretaker government – that had conducted every parliamentary election in Bangladesh since 1996 – will be contesting the election as part of an alliance of 20 parties known as the Jatiya Oikya Front. And this made the election of participation of all stakeholders which is claimed by ruling Awami League as political success. The election will be a legitimate one.
The Jatiya Oikya Front is led not by a BNP member – its leader (and two-time prime minister) Khaleda Zia is currently in prison for corruption – but by a senior lawyer and politician, Kamal Hossain, who is the founder of the Gano Forum, a splinter faction of AL. Known for his secular, democratic credentials, Hossain was also a friend and ally of Bangladesh's first prime minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. On 2 December, Bangladesh's Election Commission declared that Zia would not be eligible to contest in the elections.