‘Bangladesh heading towards one-party dominant system’

A pre-eminent political scientist has said that the country is moving towards a political system dominated by one party. Political scientist Dr Rounaq Jahan, who is a distinguished fellow of the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said that the emergence of electoral alliances led by two major parties had wiped out the possibility of emergence of a credible third party or alliance. The habit of forming alliances has also benefited Jamaat and other religio-political parties, who have used this opportunity to regain ground in the country, she said. Giving the Gyantapas Abdur Razzaq Distinguished Lecture 4 titled ‘Political Parties: Movements, Elections and Democracy in Bangladesh’ at Muzaffar Ahmed Chowdhury Auditorium at University of Dhaka on Saturday, Rounaq said: “During the first three years of elected civilian rule (1972-1975) the country moved from a one-party dominant to a single party system.” “During the following 15 years of military rule (1975-1990) we witnessed the emergence of state sponsored political parties which allowed multiple parties to operate with restrictions on their freedom. After the restoration of democracy in 1991, there was initially a two-party dominant system which later evolved into two electoral alliances,” she said. “Following the tenth parliamentary elections the BNP-led opposition gradually weakened. Bangladesh, again, appears to be back to being a one-party dominant system” Dr Rounaq said at the program. Similar to other countries, the First Past The Post (FPTP) system had facilitated the emergence of a two-party dominant system in Bangladesh while many of the smaller parties, particularly the leftist parties, gradually became marginalized and incapable of surviving on their own in electoral politics. “Both major parties gradually adopted the strategy of forging electoral alliances with smaller parties in order to pull in additional votes, virtually wiping out the possibility of the emergence of a credible third party or an electoral alliance,” she added. Organizational weakness, factionalism, dependence on top leadership, dynastic leadership, party-building through state patronage growing influence of money, criminalization of politics and decline of ideology were the key features of Bangladeshi political parties, she said. Economist Prof Rehman Sohban, also a member of board of trustees of the Gyantapas Abdur Razzaq Foundation, said that the understanding of political parties’ movements, elections and democracy in Bangladesh was a living issue and not just an academic pursuit. “In fact, how the political process is spread out depends greatly on the consciousness of the generation who are sitting here and who are around the country,” Prof Rehman said. Citing the mass movement of people organized by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman just before the Liberation War, Prof Rehman said: “That level of mobilization has never been attained again, largely because we moved away from ideological and mission-based policy agendas and correspondingly, party organization became weak.” The Gyantapas Abdur Razzaq Foundation Director General Dr Ahrar Ahmed and Jahangirnagar University’s Government and Politics department teacher Prof Al Masud Hasanuzzaman also spoke at the program.