Shujan for constitutional reforms to solve ongoing political crisis
Citizen's rights platform Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan) has called for constitutional reforms to overcome the ongoing political crisis in the country.
"The current crisis is both political and constitutional. Although politics is at the root of many crises, the solution must come through constitutional reforms," said Shujan executive member and a retired judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court MA Matin while addressing an online roundtable meeting Tuesday.
The meeting, titled "Competitive Elections, Constitutional Framework and Future of Democracy in Bangladesh", the platform's Secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar said questions are arising over the elections of Bangladesh despite having constitutional regulations aimed at fair and acceptable polls.
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"Elections are fair only if there is no influence of any ruling party during the election period," he said.
After highlighting the history of how the caretaker government was made unconstitutional, Badiul Alam said, "In order to make the upcoming 12th National Assembly elections fair, neutral and competitive, it is necessary to build a new political settlement through dialogue between our political parties."
Ali Riaz, distinguished professor of politics and government department at Illinois State University, said the main crisis is political, whether or not there will be a participatory multi-party democracy and the tendency to centralise politics.
"The constitution is being amended for political purposes. Undemocratic but an apparent democratic system is being sustained, where there will be political parties but no democracy," the professor said.
Dr Charles Darwin University Fellow Ridwanul Haque said that representative, fair and free elections are the way out of the current crisis. "It should be constitutional to hold elections under a non-partisan government in the interest of the people, as required by democracy."
Former election commissioner Dr M Sakhawat Hossain said that if any of the two main parties do not participate in the election, it will not be participatory.
"Therefore, a situation must be created in which both parties participate. And for this, the government must take the initiative," he said.
