The purpose of giving a brief description of the recently held or soon to be held elections in South Asian countries is that we too are going to see an election soon. Before every general election in Bangladesh, one of the most populous countries in South Asia, the country’s political dominance heats up over so-called democratic elections. Even foreign countries reportedly interfere in elections directly or indirectly, notably the last two elections saw direct interference in one and indirect interference and influence in the other. And this time the influence of the world’s great powers and their allies, including our biggest neighbours, is becoming visible in the coming elections.
Among them, although the US and its allies show no signs of support to the main political parties, including the ruling and opposition parties, the same cannot be said about China, Russia and India. However, many people do not feel that India, which has influence in Bangladesh politics, is not giving unquestioning support to the ruling party as it used to do in the past.
We are facing various kinds of crises regarding the upcoming elections. Many analysts have been talking about them for the last two years. Many said there was no chance of a repeat of situations like 2014 or 2018 in the next parliamentary elections. There still appears to be no effort to create the environment that is necessary for fair elections, or the kind of elections America wants to see.
America has started implementing its visa policy. Associating Bangladesh with countries around the world where the US enforces its visa policy during elections is really shameful for us. Although various of America’s policies, especially its foreign policies, are not very acceptable to the so-called Third World or developing countries, there are still many reasons to think that its election-related policies have been wholeheartedly accepted by the people of those countries. It should be noted that this policy is only about acceptable elections in the case of Bangladesh. It seems that this visa policy is being applied not only to the upcoming elections but also to people associated with the last two elections.
This policy covers the people in the organization that is responsible for conducting elections and all other institutions including the judiciary, administration, law enforcement agency, media, political parties and leaders who have responsibilities to conduct fair elections. . The United States believes this policy will help facilitate the fair and acceptable elections that the people of Bangladesh aspire to.