In addition to deteriorating law and order and unbridled corruption in the last five years, skyrocketing prices of essentials and acute shortage of power have made life difficult for the countrymen.

Infuriated by severe power crisis, people have staged violent demonstrations in the capital and other parts of the country demanding uninterrupted supply of power. Kansat of Chapainawabganj even saw 20 people killed in police firing during such demonstration.

The BNP and its alliance will observe October 1 as "ballot revolution day" while the opposition Awami League (AL) and its alliance mark the day as "black day".

In its electoral pledges, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies had declared that their first task would be rooting out terrorism, corruption, generation of adequate power, and ensuring good governance.

However, besides an alarming rise in corruption at different levels of the administration and violation of human rights, activities of Islamist militants constituted a very dangerous threat to law and order in the last five years, making good governance a distant dream.

The eighth parliament constituted through the October 1, 2001 election has not been as effective as it should have been, failing to advance towards its objectives including ensuring executive accountability and transparency.

The allegations that the BNP and its allies had levelled against the AL government in the run-up to the last general elections ironically have now boomeranged on them.

The government has clearly shown its lack of interest to separate the judiciary from the executive, as promised in its electoral manifesto, by repeatedly seeking time-extensions from the Supreme Court.

Appointment of judges to the High Court during the alliance government has been bitterly criticised for alleged politicisation and nepotism in the process.

The government has not yet initiated any move to form a National Human Rights Commission although the country has witnessed an alarming rise in human rights violation, especially in the hands of law enforcers, since last year. Extra-judicial killings in the form of "crossfire" have surpassed all records.

The government ordered for mass arrest and detention of people in an apparent bid to foil the opposition's movement in the earlier years.

The ruling BNP's pledge to establish and uphold the rule of law actually proved to be a gimmick when the government last January granted presidential clemency to a BNP man sentenced to death in a double murder case over 22 years ago.

There is also little possibility for the state-run radio and television to have full autonomy in line with the government's electoral pledges as its tenure expires on October 27. Bangladesh Betar and Bangladesh Television have as usual been used to serve the purposes of the ruling parties.

Politicisation in the public administration and Election Commission is also getting worse with the next parliamentary election nearing. The government has awarded promotion to a significant number of public servants loyal to the ruling parties and recruited favoured candidates in different important posts.

PRICE HIKE AND POWER CRISIS
The ever-soaring cost of living, resulting from tremendous price hike of essentials and rise in transport fares, coupled with unemployment has brought unremitting misery to the lives of commoners.

The government has failed to initiate proper measures against the syndicates controlling the price of essentials.

Power outages have made things even worse. Although the government claims to have taken a lot of measures to solve the power crisis and pledged to launch several new power plants, it has actually failed to ensure enough production of electricity.

In fact, the crisis in power generation during the present government's rule is more acute than during the previous government.

Amid widespread public protest against the severe power crisis, the government withdrew state minister for power Iqbal Hassan Mahmood on May 21 giving the office to Anwarul Kabir Talukder.

But Talukder was also was removed from the post on Friday night just hours into his announcement for resignation.

While announcing his decision to resign, Talukder apologised to the people for his failure to meet the demand for electricity.

The inaction and wrong actions of the four-party alliance government have now led the country towards daily load-shedding of nearly 2,000 megawatts (MW). The country's daily demand for power is 5,200MW while it can generate only 3,000-3,500MW.

Meanwhile, the government has already started making fresh promise to initiate necessary measures to generate sufficient power if voted to power again.

UNBRIDLED CORRUPTION
The government in 2004 formed the Anti-Corruption Commission in line with its electoral pledges but did everything not to let the commission work independently in combating corruption.

In the absence of effective measures to check graft, the country seems to have made its own the number one position in the corruption index of the Transparency International.

The parliament, which is commissioned to ensure government accountability, is unable to play its role due to the ruling alliance's indifference.

The House does not discuss the burning issues and the parliamentary standing committees have failed to monitor corruption and irregularities in government expenditure because of unwarranted pressure and interference from the government high-ups.

The parliamentary standing committees on various ministries formed several dozen sub-committees in the last three years to probe alleged corruption and irregularities of the ministries, but they could not proceed due to non-cooperation of the ministers concerned and pressures from the ruling alliance bigwigs.

The alleged involvement of an alternative powerhouse in corruption and irregularities in the government expenditure has been a much-talked-about issue during the present government's term.

SLIDE IN LAW AND ORDER, RISE OF MILITANTS
None of the government's efforts--first, the Operation Clean Heart, a drive using the armed forces, and then the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) comprising members of the armed forces--could successfully cope with the existing lawlessness.

Extra-judicial killings by law enforcers, particularly the Rab, have drawn severe criticism both at home and abroad for violation of human rights.

Criminal activities including those of militant outfits soared to unprecedented levels in 2004 when Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) unleashed a reign of terror in different parts of the country, particularly the northwestern districts.

There are allegations that the outfits were patronised by some ministers and ruling party lawmakers.

Taking advantage of the government ignorance about the activities of the banned outfit, the JMB staged countrywide near simultaneous bomb blasts on August 17, 2005.

The masterminds behind the assassination attempt on Leader of the Opposition and AL chief Sheikh Hasina have not been brought to book although two years have passed since the attacks that left 23 people killed and scores of others injured.

Investigators are still in the dark about the identity of those responsible for the bomb attack on UK High Commissioner to Bangladesh Anwar Choudhury and the killing of former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria.

Besides, the government is yet to unravel the mystery of the arms hauls in Chittagong and Bogra in 2004.