Shakhawat Liton

Can we imagine the incident that took place in the House of Commons on January 15, in our Jatiya Sangsad? On that night, UK MPs rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal by 230 votes.

The Corruption Perceptions Index released by the Transparency International on Tuesday provides food for thought on corruption and democracy.

Lawmakers elected in Sunday's polls took oath as members of the 11th parliament yesterday with the 10th Jatiya Sangsad still in place.

In the first parliament 45 years ago, none of the parties was recognised as official opposition due to their poor strength in the House.

After ten years, Bangladesh is back to a participatory election of sorts. Parties of all hue and colour are contesting the polls that is going to be held today. But the buck stops here.

Former Election Commissioner Brigadier General (Retd) M Sakhawat Hossain talks to Shakhawat Liton of The Daily Star about the deployment of army personnel and the role they are expected to play during the election.

Sharmeen Murshid, Chief Executive Officer of the election observation group “Brotee”, talks to Shakhawat Liton of The Daily Star about the importance of election monitoring and recent developments ahead of the election.

The BNP, if voted to power, will bring sweeping reforms to strengthen democracy, make parliament effective, establish the rule of law and ensure independence of the judiciary, according to its manifesto for the December 30 polls.

The Awami League will expedite institutionalising democracy and strengthen the National Human Rights Commission, the Anti-Corruption Commission, the mass media and the judiciary if voted to power for a third straight time.

The Jatiya Oikyafront, if voted to power, will form an all-party truth and reconciliation commission to investigate the extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and false cases of the last 10 years.

Businessmen are likely to retain their dominance in the next Jatiya Sangsad. Participation of a large number of businessmen in the polls indicates that their presence in the new parliament will be overwhelming and money will influence the election. In the alliances led by the Awami League and BNP, around 62 percent of the contestants are businessmen, according to the data from 286 of 300 constituencies.

There is no dearth of laws in our country to protect people from danger. But none of them could protect Aritry Adhikary, a ninth-grade student of the city's Viqarunnisa Noon School & College, who took her life on Monday hours after she and her parents were allegedly insulted by some teachers of the school.

The BNP has finalised candidates in at least 150 constituencies and will pick contenders for the remaining seats after the Election Commission decides the fate of many of its leaders' appeals against rejection of their nomination papers.

The BNP's strategy of fielding multiple candidates in almost every constituency has worked effectively. Otherwise, the party would not have any candidates in a large number of seats, say senior party leaders.

Jatiya Oikyafront would be making pledges for sweeping reforms, its draft manifesto indicated.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia cannot contest the upcoming parliamentary election as the Supreme Court yesterday upheld the High Court ruling barring a person sentenced to more than two years in jail from taking part in elections even if an appeal against the conviction is pending.

Around 1,700 aspirants from alliances led by Awami League and BNP are filing nominations in 300 constituencies as both the camps failed to pick a single contender in every seat for the upcoming parliamentary election.

The presence of observers in the upcoming election will be thinner compared with that in 2008, as both domestic and international organisations are unwilling to deploy strong workforce mainly due to fund crunch.

Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad has been unreachable for most of the party ranks over the last couple of days. He is staying in a house at Gulshan instead of his residence, President Park, in Baridhara.

Separate electoral symbols were reserved for all the political parties when they registered with the Election Commission in 2008. Their candidates are supposed to run for elections with own symbols.