As of now over 10% of seats are not being contested in the scheduled parliamentary election.
The Election Commission has scrutinised and approved the nominations of 33 Awami League candidates in seats which have not been contested. This means that ruling party candidates are likely to be declared winners without being contested in fully 11% of all constituencies.
According to the EC, only two candidates are contesting each other in 103 parliamentary seats, mostly consisting of nominees from the Awami League and Jatiya Party. So far, seven Jatiya Party candidates have applied to withdraw nominations, but this number may rise much higher if other Jatiya Party candidates pull out as well.
The precedents for such a high number of uncontested seats are not positive. Since the resumption of parliamentary democracy in 1991, there have been two elections held with a significant number of uncontested seats. The general election on February 15, 2006 was boycotted by all major parties except for the BNP, and 49 BNP candidates were elected uncontested. In the January 22, 2006 election, 18 BNP candidates were elected uncontested, but those polls ended up cancelled.
In both the 2001 and 2008 general elections which were participated in by all major parties, no seats were uncontested.
Clearly, while there has also been a fall in the overall number of nominations received by the EC, the main reason for the rise in the number of uncontested seats is the non-participation of major parties.
This is self evidently a cause for concern. The spirit of our democracy is undermined by such a high level of uncontested seats in an important national election.
