End of democracy?
Faiyaz Al Zamal Mcgill University, Montreal, Canada
The election process is the single most important factor for the proper functioning of democracy in a country. However, the present government seems to have had everything set for a farce in the name of election. The political appointment of an extremely biased CEC, the murky preparation of a voter list full of spooky voters, intense politicisation of the administration and the change of the retirement age of the chief justice to put in the man of their choice as the Chief Advisor of the future caretaker government make the intention of the government pretty clear. We all were hopeful once the opposition returned to the parliament and the chance of a dialogue between the government and the opposition seemed to be bright. However, the hopes are fading now as the government has taken a firm stand on the inclusion of Jamaat in its dialogue delegation. It seems to me that the coming days will be more violent. The opposition is left with only one way to press the demand for electoral reforms, through the means of hartal, seizure and street agitation. And the tough stance of the government on the issue of handling opposition political programmes will only contribute to the deterioration of the situation. We can only hope that a so-called 'third force' doesn't take the advantage of the turmoil to put an end to our democracy (however faulty it has been).
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