BNP leaders will say that they will not participate in any election under this government and will not allow any such election to be held. Now he has gone a step further and announced that he will oust this government from power. When I asked a former BNP MP, with only three months left for the elections and the schedule likely to be announced in late October or early November, how would they rig the elections?
Responding, the BNP leader said that three months is not a trivial time. Just wait and see what happens. Awami League’s formula of 2014 and 2018 will not work this time. Another leader of alliance partner BNP said that considering the condition of the country’s economy, they will not have to wait even for three months. The government will fall.
Whether the government falls or not, the country’s economy is clearly in a bad shape. Investment has stopped, there is a gas and electricity crisis and prices of essential commodities are going out of control. The government’s efforts to conduct intermittent raids in markets and to fix prices of eggs, onions and potatoes have proved futile. The common people are at their wit’s end.
The problem is that responsible behavior cannot be expected from the political parties of this ill-fated country. Over the past 52 years, the crumbling left, the powerful centrist and the right have all failed to determine how to conduct elections. Whichever party comes to power, it does all kinds of manipulations to win the elections. When they are out of power they say one thing, and when they come into power they say the exact opposite thing.
