Editorial
AL casts doubts on its election win SYED Ashraful Islam – local government, rural development and cooperatives minister of the AL-led government and general secretary of the ruling Awami League – on Thursday he claimed that his party was not allowed to return to power in 2001 as it had refused to export oil and gas during its 1996-2001 tenure at the helms of the state. However, according to a report front-paged in New Age on Friday, it is not the first time that a member of the incumbent government has made such a claim. A few days back, during an interview with the BBC, Syed Modasser Ali, adviser to the prime minister on health and welfare, also claimed that the Awami League could not come to power in 2001 as it did not agree to export oil and gas. The claim, first articulated by an adviser to the prime minister and now reinforced by the key member of her cabinet and also the second-in-command of the ruling party, surely deserves closer scrutiny.
There is no denying that claim strikes at the very root of the country's electoral and, for that matter, governance system. While, in a democratic dispensation, the people ultimately decide who they prefer to be ruled by, Syed Ashraf seemingly suggested that it might not have been the case in the 2001 general elections. Although it is typical for a leader of the Awami League, one must admit, to question the credibility of the 2001 elections, in which the party's arch-rival the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies registered a landslide, the allegations thus far have been confined to the realms of vote rigging, ballot box stuffing, intimidation, etc. To imply that some quarters have actually scripted the election results is taking the matter to a different level altogether.
The suggestion – whether or not Syed Ashraf or Syed Modasser realises or not – casts a shadow over the resounding victory in the December 2008 general elections as well. The question that the claim will raise is: If the Awami League was not allowed to return to power in 2001, because it had refused to export gas and oil, has the party then vouchsafed to whoever is pulling the string that it will not get in the way of export of the country's natural resources this time around? Although Syed Ashraf insisted that his government remains firm on its previous position with regard to the question of gas and oil export, its recent actions suggest otherwise. In fact, the day he made the assertion, the prime minister endorsed the awarding of three offshore blocks to two international companies under production sharing contracts that reportedly have provisions for export of gas to be extracted.
Most importantly, the claim casts doubts on the sovereignty of the state. If some quarters actually decide who should run the country and how, as the AL general secretary has claimed, then one may very well question why we need to continue with the charade of elections.
Hence, we would demand that Syed Ashraf, in particular, and the government, in general, come up with a clarification of the claim that he and, previously, Syed Modasser made. The onus now lies on the government to prove that its resounding election victory was a reflection of a groundswell of popular support, and not some behind-the-scenes machinations by the powerful pro-gas export quarters
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