Democracy in Bangladesh
Democratic Practice in Bangladesh
From the Dravidian ages to Hossain Mohammad Ershad, Bangladesh was a prime place for dictatorship and monarchy. All rulers in Bangladesh ruled with absolute power and until 1990, the people did not have much say in the political system. Although some rulers of Mughal Dynasty are credited with following the peoples opinion, that was not a democratic system.
Only two exceptions can be marked from the pre-1990s era. One is the election of 1946 where Muslim league won most of the East Bengal seats which in turn outlined the borders of current Bangladesh. The second instance is the 1970-71 general assembly election where Awami League won all of the East Pakistan seats. This gave the Bangladeshis enough political leverage to ask for independence and thus push Pakistan into the War of Liberation in 1971. These were the only two instances where the general peoples say affected the overall political system.
After liberation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Ziaur Rahman and Hossain Mohammad Ershad were the three prominent leaders. All of them proclaimed democracy but none showed any sign of acknowledging people’s opinion. Political change usually came with major coups and elections were mostly scams.
Actual democracy in Bangladesh started from 1990 with the overthrowing of Hossain Mohammad Ershad. After that we had three general elections. Two of them were won by Bangladesh Nationalist Party and one was won by Bangladesh Awami League. The Member of Parliament was chosen via direct vote and those polls can be considered as reasonably fair as the overall results showed semblance with the public opinions.
Problems With Current System
At this point, democracy in Bangladesh is faltering. Political heads are tainted with malicious records. Politics has become a tool for the power hungry. Most educated laureates have denounced politics left it. So the candidates that the people are faced with are not good. And since the Law enforcement
From the Dravidian ages to Hossain Mohammad Ershad, Bangladesh was a prime place for dictatorship and monarchy. All rulers in Bangladesh ruled with absolute power and until 1990, the people did not have much say in the political system. Although some rulers of Mughal Dynasty are credited with following the peoples opinion, that was not a democratic system.
Only two exceptions can be marked from the pre-1990s era. One is the election of 1946 where Muslim league won most of the East Bengal seats which in turn outlined the borders of current Bangladesh. The second instance is the 1970-71 general assembly election where Awami League won all of the East Pakistan seats. This gave the Bangladeshis enough political leverage to ask for independence and thus push Pakistan into the War of Liberation in 1971. These were the only two instances where the general peoples say affected the overall political system.
After liberation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Ziaur Rahman and Hossain Mohammad Ershad were the three prominent leaders. All of them proclaimed democracy but none showed any sign of acknowledging people’s opinion. Political change usually came with major coups and elections were mostly scams.
Actual democracy in Bangladesh started from 1990 with the overthrowing of Hossain Mohammad Ershad. After that we had three general elections. Two of them were won by Bangladesh Nationalist Party and one was won by Bangladesh Awami League. The Member of Parliament was chosen via direct vote and those polls can be considered as reasonably fair as the overall results showed semblance with the public opinions.
Problems With Current System
At this point, democracy in Bangladesh is faltering. Political heads are tainted with malicious records. Politics has become a tool for the power hungry. Most educated laureates have denounced politics left it. So the candidates that the people are faced with are not good. And since the Law enforcement