Several economists, known for their economical use of words, find themselves echoing a sentiment on the recent polling day. After 2 p.m., Dr. Hossain Zillur Rahman took to social media platform X, tweeting enigmatically about 'The presence of absence.' It wasn't challenging to grasp his implication. Subsequently, reports emerged indicating a voter turnout slightly over 26 per cent until 3 :00pm, suggesting that a majority of voters saw little purpose in going to a polling centre when the choices were seemingly limited to the Awami League and its proxy candidates. Even if we entertain the chief election commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal's assertion of a 42 per cent turnout, with an unconvincing rate of voting making nearly one-third of the votes cast in the final hour, this figure falls well below the average voter participation in elections held under caretaker administrations in 1996, 2001, and 2008. The 2008 election, marking the commencement of AL's current rule w...

  Events leading to the schedule announcement of our 12th parliamentary election appear to have eerily similar to those before the  previous two much discredited and disputed elections. This time apart from serious disagreements among the most potent challengers centering  the election management process, the Election Commission’s consistently inconsistent statements and decisions show it lacks the courage and capacity to act decisively and independently. Otherwise, chief election commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal’s address to the nation would not have been full of contradictions.  CEC Awal admitted that “the EC has been noticing differences among the political leadership regarding the polls, particularly on the issue of the institutional system of elections,” and that “consensus and solutions are needed,’ but announced the voting schedule without any resolution of the disputes. He then expects the nation to trust him when he said,  “We believe the upcoming polls w...

  Now that the dust has settled in Dhaka following the peaceful and orderly staging of the BNP’s mass rally we need to find some answers to a few simple questions. A rally that was expected to last a maximum of six hours has cost more than 10 millions Dhaka residents anything between a day and four days (varying on locations) of their normal daily routines, including  office work, shopping, children’s coaching, medical appointments, shopping, leisure and other activities.  The images of anti-riot armoured vehicles, water cannons, and AK-47 wielding special forces patrolling certain city streets resembled a war zone, and not a democratic square. The worry and concerns expressed, and issuance of the advisories by foreign missions in Dhaka to their own nationals, therefore, were not that unwarranted, especially after some ministers expressed annoyance at and issued veiled warnings to foreign diplomats.  The BNP announced its series of rallies in 10 divisional venues on ...

THE recent spate of protests against communal violence and demands for justice are undoubtedly justified and laudable. And, participation in these demonstrations on the streets appears to be significantly higher compared with any mass protests held in the past few years. However, one special feature to be noted here is that all these solidarity against the worst communal violence in the country’s history came too late. It could be argued that had those political workers, student activists and members of the civil society taken to the street immediately to show the unity against the evil forces, immediately after the incident in Cumilla, some of the spiralling troubles in other parts of the country could have been averted. It is, therefore, a crucial question why the delay and what were the reasons for the hesitancy in social and political activism? Are we becoming less sensitive to human sufferings? Or, have we become too communal? Could the political environment be the reason that mak...