Election, democratic legitimacy and regime stability in Bangladesh: A case study of the 10th general election

Bangladesh witnessed her 10th General Election held on 05 January 2014 with some remarkable incidents such as major political opposition parties did not take part in the polls hence more than 50% candidates of which mostly from the ruling party were elected MPs uncontested; voters turnout was very l...

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Main Author:	Quddus, S. M. Abdul
Format:	Conference or Workshop Item
Language:	English English
Published:	2014
Subjects:	JC Political theory
Online Access:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/41938/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/41938/1/APSA_conf_full_paper_final_4IREP.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/41938/2/APSA_conf_2014_official_Ltr_4IREP.pdf

id	iium-41938
recordtype	eprints
spelling	iium-419382018-02-14T08:03:27Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/41938/ Election, democratic legitimacy and regime stability in Bangladesh: A case study of the 10th general election Quddus, S. M. Abdul JC Political theory Bangladesh witnessed her 10th General Election held on 05 January 2014 with some remarkable incidents such as major political opposition parties did not take part in the polls hence more than 50% candidates of which mostly from the ruling party were elected MPs uncontested; voters turnout was very low - about 22-26% (www.amadershomoy.com); due to a lack of contesting candidates in some constituencies there was no vote at all!); election ends with chaos; local media, international communities and donor agencies expressed their dissatisfaction about the credibility of the election outcomes and the way election was conducted; and others. However, the ruling Awami League called the election a free and fair one and expressed its satisfaction about the election outcomes. This paper deals with the following research questions: (a) What is the political culture in Bangladesh and how does political culture influence election in the country? (b) Why Bangladeshi regimes feel encouraged to allow ‘electoral engineering’ or fail to meet international standards while conducting elections? (c) What are the consequences when elections fail to meet the necessary level of credibility and how to overcome these problems? The paper is based on empirical data collected mainly from personal observation of the 10th national election in Bangladesh as well as information from the Election Commission’s website and print and electronic media reports about the 10th General Election and democracy in Bangladesh. Data from published secondary sources have also been consulted. This paper argues that Bangladesh democracy is again at the crossroads as the provision of Non-party Caretaker Government (NCG) has been scrapped by the current regime from the Constitution despite resistance from the main opposition block. In fact, the 10th general parliamentary election under party government raised critical questions about the credibility of election, legitimacy of the regime, and stability of the government. The paper further argues that democracy has been provided with little room for expected development by uncouth party politics or political culture in Bangladesh. Although an interim arrangement, called the Caretaker Government system, was introduced for transition from dictatorship into democracy in 1991 and was relatively successful in holding three free and fair elections; it suffered setback in conducting the 4th General Election owing to composition imbroglio and was replaced by a military-backed Caretaker Government. Therefore, this paper draws the conclusion that though electoral system in Bangladesh has been changed from the Caretaker Government system to election under party government system, little qualitative change has taken place in the country’s political system and electoral arena and culture to have credible election, followed by democratic legitimacy and regime stability. 2014 Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/41938/1/APSA_conf_full_paper_final_4IREP.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/41938/2/APSA_conf_2014_official_Ltr_4IREP.pdf Quddus, S. M. Abdul (2014) Election, democratic legitimacy and regime stability in Bangladesh: A case study of the 10th general election. In: The Annual Conference of the Australian Political Studies Association 2014, 28 Sep -1 Oct, 2014 , Sydney, Australia. (Unpublished)
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	International Islamic University Malaysia
building	IIUM Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English English
topic	JC Political theory
spellingShingle	JC Political theory Quddus, S. M. Abdul Election, democratic legitimacy and regime stability in Bangladesh: A case study of the 10th general election
description	Bangladesh witnessed her 10th General Election held on 05 January 2014 with some remarkable incidents such as major political opposition parties did not take part in the polls hence more than 50% candidates of which mostly from the ruling party were elected MPs uncontested; voters turnout was very low - about 22-26% (www.amadershomoy.com); due to a lack of contesting candidates in some constituencies there was no vote at all!); election ends with chaos; local media, international communities and donor agencies expressed their dissatisfaction about the credibility of the election outcomes and the way election was conducted; and others. However, the ruling Awami League called the election a free and fair one and expressed its satisfaction about the election outcomes. This paper deals with the following research questions: (a) What is the political culture in Bangladesh and how does political culture influence election in the country? (b) Why Bangladeshi regimes feel encouraged to allow ‘electoral engineering’ or fail to meet international standards while conducting elections? (c) What are the consequences when elections fail to meet the necessary level of credibility and how to overcome these problems? The paper is based on empirical data collected mainly from personal observation of the 10th national election in Bangladesh as well as information from the Election Commission’s website and print and electronic media reports about the 10th General Election and democracy in Bangladesh. Data from published secondary sources have also been consulted. This paper argues that Bangladesh democracy is again at the crossroads as the provision of Non-party Caretaker Government (NCG) has been scrapped by the current regime from the Constitution despite resistance from the main opposition block. In fact, the 10th general parliamentary election under party government raised critical questions about the credibility of election, legitimacy of the regime, and stability of the government. The paper further argues that democracy has been provided with little room for expected development by uncouth party politics or political culture in Bangladesh. Although an interim arrangement, called the Caretaker Government system, was introduced for transition from dictatorship into democracy in 1991 and was relatively successful in holding three free and fair elections; it suffered setback in conducting the 4th General Election owing to composition imbroglio and was replaced by a military-backed Caretaker Government. Therefore, this paper draws the conclusion that though electoral system in Bangladesh has been changed from the Caretaker Government system to election under party government system, little qualitative change has taken place in the country’s political system and electoral arena and culture to have credible election, followed by democratic legitimacy and regime stability.
format	Conference or Workshop Item
author	Quddus, S. M. Abdul
author_facet	Quddus, S. M. Abdul
author_sort	Quddus, S. M. Abdul
title	Election, democratic legitimacy and regime stability in Bangladesh: A case study of the 10th general election
title_short	Election, democratic legitimacy and regime stability in Bangladesh: A case study of the 10th general election
title_full	Election, democratic legitimacy and regime stability in Bangladesh: A case study of the 10th general election
title_fullStr	Election, democratic legitimacy and regime stability in Bangladesh: A case study of the 10th general election
title_full_unstemmed	Election, democratic legitimacy and regime stability in Bangladesh: A case study of the 10th general election
title_sort	election, democratic legitimacy and regime stability in bangladesh: a case study of the 10th general election
publishDate	2014
url	http://irep.iium.edu.my/41938/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/41938/1/APSA_conf_full_paper_final_4IREP.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/41938/2/APSA_conf_2014_official_Ltr_4IREP.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T20:59:54Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T20:59:54Z
_version_	1777410553191333888

Election, democratic legitimacy and regime stability in Bangladesh: A case study of the 10th general election

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