The government has taken up initiatives to gather information on how civil administration runs after declaration of election schedules in several selected countries where polls are held under political governments.
“We have sent letters to our missions in several countries, including India, Britain, Japan and Canada, asking for information on how the bureaucracy functions there during the election period,” an official of the foreign ministry told the Dhaka Tribune Thursday.
The foreign ministry has also asked the missions to provide information on what the modalities of handing over power to the next government are.
When contacted, Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Tariq A Karim declined to make any comment on the issue.
The ministry official, however, said the letters had been sent in the third week of this month and some of the missions had already responded.
“The caretaker or interim arrangement is nothing new to us but this time it is a little bit different as the election will be held under a political government like in many other countries,” the official said.
Asked if he had any idea about the interim government, he responded in the negative, saying: “My understanding is that there will be the secretary, and if we have any problem, we can consult him.”
Parliament approved the 15th amendment to the constitution, scrapping the caretaker form of government for overseeing the general elections. The main opposition BNP has since opposed the amendment.
At a meeting with secretaries on September 2, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said her government would continue after October 26 but it would not make any policy-level decision in that period and the bureaucrats would have to play a major role.
On September 12, Cabinet Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan sent letters to all secretaries, asking them to stay alert and careful about their duties until the next general elections.
He asked the secretaries to continue the “stability” of the administration and “development activities” of the government and be prepared to hold the general elections in a free and fair manner.
Even after the meeting with the prime minister and the letter from the cabinet secretary, many top civil bureaucrats are confused about their role in running the administration after October 26.
