UK elections

This election result is unique in the sense that all three major political parties can claim some sort of victory in the polls. Labour obviously can take credit for winning a third straight election with a 67 seats majority, Conservatives can claim success by enhancing 40 odd seats than in the last parliament and the Liberal Democrats can be very happy as they could add a dozen seats to their tally and substantially increased their percentage of the total electoral votes.

This election result is also unique in the sense that Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats all can be considered as losers in this election. Tony Blair is a big loser as Labour's majority has been slashed by almost 100 seats. Blair's misguided Iraq policy is being blamed for this great debacle and so he is now being seen as a liability to his party. MPs who have lost in the polls are blaming Blair for their defeat and some of them are calling for his resignation. Tony Blair has declared beforehand that he would not seek

a fourth term in office and so it was expected that he would quit 12 to 18 months earlier than the expiry of his third term so that a new leader can take over and get enough time to prepare for the next general election. But already there are speculations in political circles that he may have to pave the way for his potential successor, the powerful Treasury chief Mr. Gordon Brown, much sooner than expected, as Blair's effectiveness as a leader has greatly been diminished.

Michael Howard of the Conservative Party is a loser as he could not prevent a Labour victory in the polls. He could not take advantage of the wide spread resentments of the people for Britain's unnecessary involvement in the Iraq war and he acknowledged this failure in his post election speech. Charles Kennedy of the Liberal Democrats cannot be happy either as he failed to convert Liberal's increased share of popular vote into winning sufficient number of seats in the parliament.

Now, what can our politicians learn from this UK election? Well, while nobody expects a poster/banner/procession free Bangladesh at election times or that all the candidates in a constituency will stand in a line to hear the declaration of the Returning Officer and applaud the verdict of the electorate, still people of our country expect at least certain norms and political decencies as displayed by the British political leaders.