THE culture of public representatives being elected uncontested in national or local government elections is a worrying development in any democratic state, but that seems to be the growing trend in Bangladesh. A total of 27 chair candidates backed by the ruling Awami League are set to be elected unopposed in the upcoming zila parishad elections to be held in all but three districts of the Chattogram Hill Tracts on October 17. The joint secretary of the Election Commission informed the media on September 25 that the election for the chairperson post will be held in 34 districts. In the remaining districts, there are no candidates but the ruling party contender. The role of the commission was already questioned when it supported the government’s decision to appoint unelected individuals, mostly ruling party men, as administrators following the dissolution of all zila parishads on April 17. The five-year tenure of the parishad expired in January without any election held to choose their successors. The commission’s failure to hold elections on time means its failure to ensure the continuity of the rule of elected public representatives.

Most political parties, including the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, are not contesting the zila parishad election as the overall electoral culture has been seriously ruptured. The past two general elections were highly non-participatory when a significant number of ruling party candidates were elected uncontested. Under the Nurul Huda commission, 492 out of 4,850 chairman candidates in upazilas, municipalities and union parishads across the country were elected uncontested, without a single vote being cast. The trend of public representatives being elected uncontested suggests that the electoral system has continually denied people’s democratic right to vote. Local and international election monitoring organisations have on several occasions commented that such a tendency is a sign that power and money play a major role in those polls, while people’s voices are undermined. In what follows, it is not surprising that the voter turnout in recently held polls is on the decline. In the 2019 staggered upazila parishad polls under the Nurul Huda-led commission, as the commission’s data show, voter turnout fell by 21 per cent compared to the upazila polls held by the Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad-led commission in 2014.

Uncontested elections in which only one party competes completely defeat the purpose of any multi-party democratic system. In this context, the chief commissioner’s rhetorical assurance, while continuing with the culture of an uncontested election, that the commission will do everything in its power is inadequate and leaves room to question the commitment of the commission to holding a credible national election. It is time the commission reckoned with the sanctity of the power they are entrusted with and restored people’s democratic right to vote.