THE ninth parliamentary elections in Bangladesh saw a landslide victory for the Awami League. The high-turnout election also saw Bangladeshi voters turn away from the BNP and its alliance partner, Jamaat-e-Islami.
The Jamaat, which had captured 17 seats in the 2001 parliamentary elections, was reduced to 2 seats in the 300-seat parliament in the 2008 elections. For Jamaat in particular and religion-based politics in general, it was a resounding electoral defeat. (more…)
Tazreena Sajjad
Published in the Daily Star on 6 Jan 2009.
IT is upto you, my Bengali and adivasi brothers and sisters, to save our country. It is your turn now.” These were the words of adivasi Bir Bikram U.K. Ching speaking at a function in his honour. It was organised by Shuddhoi Muktijoddho, a private initiative created by Lt Col (Retd) Sajjad Ali Zahir, Bir Pratik, to honour the contributions of the adivasi community in the liberation of Bangladesh.
U.K. Ching’s journey from near obscurity to recognition is one that should give the nation pause. There is little information about his contributions in the war and hardly any documentation about this gallant hero in official records.
(more…)
Categories: 1971 · Ethnic Minority
Jyoti Rahman
Published in the Forum on January 2009
In the election of December 29, 2008, voters unequivocally rejected nationalist politics — the BNP-led alliance garnered around 37 per cent of the votes cast, against the Grand Alliance’s approximately 57 per cent. But what caused the collapse in the nationalist alliance’s support? Most post-election analysis of the BNP politics explores this question. Another question speculates on what will the BNP leadership do after this debacle?
The focus of this piece is broader than just this election, the recent past, or the near future. The aim is to explore what might happen to nationalist politics — by which I mean the political coalition put together by Ziaur Rahman in the 1970s, and its successors in the subsequent decades — over the coming years. (more…)
Syeed Ahamed
Published in the Forum on January 2009
The Awami League has won the National Election 2008 by a stunning landslide for many solid reasons including some indefensible faults of its opponent. In a pre-election analysis Jyoti Rahman and I identified five decisive factors which were likely to determine the results of this election.1
In the absence of a credible exit-poll, this article revaluates those determinants and correlates them with the final election results to see exactly what happened on December 29, 2008. (more…)
Rumi Ahmed
Published in the Forum on January 2009
If the event of January 11, 2007 is the beginning of a popular reprisal against the pathetic record of Khaleda Zia’s government of 2001 to 2006, the election of December 29, 2008 is climax of that reprisal of the people.
 Munir Uz Zaman/ AFP |
Mrs. Zia led her party to a substantial victory in the parliamentary election of 2001. Even during the election prior to that, in 1996, her party, although losing, won a substantial number of seats.
The result of this election was worse than the wildest nightmare scenario BNP leaders ever could imagine of. Yes, BNP leaders including Khaleda Zia has complained of massive scale rigging. But there is definitely a consensus level acceptance of an Awami League victory, even within the BNP leadership. (more…)
Categories: Politics
