Badiul Alam Majumdar

My former classmate, now the finance minister, presented in the Parliament the budget for the year (also the golden anniversary of our independence), and I congratulate him for this honour.

On May 24, the Cabinet Division wrote to the Secretaries of Security Division of the Home Ministry and the Election Commission (EC) to amend the National Identity Registration Act (Jatiyo Parichoypotro Nibondon Ain), 2010 and transfer the personnel and infrastructure used for providing NID services, which includes 594 server-stations, to the Security Division.

Despite the claims made a few months ago that Bangladesh has successfully—more successfully than many western countries—beat back the coronavirus,

Bangladesh was unable to put in quarantine 213 students who came from the Chinese city of Wuhan—where the coronavirus originated—in early February and the subsequent influx of hundreds of thousands of people from countries like Italy where the virus was causing havoc.

A recent headline in Prothom Alo (June 26, 2020) stated, “Amartya Sen and Noam Chomsky showered Kerala with praise for their successful containment of the coronavirus”.

On April 16, as coronavirus continued to spread through the country, the government declared all of Bangladesh to be at risk from the pandemic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the spread of coronavirus a global pandemic. Over 14,000 people have died and nearly 350,000 have been infected, although there is uncertainty about the numbers as many of those infected may not show symptoms.

In 1964, I was enrolled as a student at the University of Dhaka (DU) and became active in student politics, although my involvement began during the education movement of the early 1960s.

One question that I repeatedly faced in the last few days was: how were the elections of the two Dhaka city corporations?

The Election Commission, particularly the CEC, has been repeatedly assuring us that the upcoming elections of the two Dhaka city corporations will be free and fair.

On October 11, the Buet VC announced that student and teacher politics would be banned at the university.

A 2009 Homeland Security Department report warned that race-based extremism would become a serious and growing threat to American national security.

During last year’s road safety movement, there was a demand raised by the student demonstrators that touched a chord with a wide cross-section of the population: “repair the state.” T

Marked by many questions, controversies and some degree of violence, the 11th parliamentary election took place on December 30. According to the Election Commission, the overall turnout was 80 percent, while it was less than 46 percent in the six constituencies where EVM was used. Six constituencies had the highest turnout rate of 99 percent.

On October 28, Khaleda Zia was convicted and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.

So far, ten parliamentary elections were held in Bangladesh, of which three—the 1988 election during the Ershad regime, the February 15, 1996 election under the BNP government, and the January 5, 2014 election under the Awami League-led Grand Alliance government—were one-sided.

The 11th Parliamentary election is at our doorstep. The election schedule is expected to be declared at the beginning of November and the election to be held at the end of December.

On September 19, 2018, over the vehement objections of civil society and media representatives, the Parliament passed the Digital Security Act, 2018. The concern is that it is a draconian law which will impede freedom of expression, including individual and media freedom.

The recent “student agitation” not only demanded safe roads, but also raised our awareness regarding our state structure, characterised by corruption, repression and injustice.

The year 2018 is one of elections. A total of five city corporation elections are to be held this year, of which elections in Khulna and Gazipur have already been held.