In today’s episode of ‘The Election Talks 2018’, Sultana Kamal, eminent rights activist and former adviser to a caretaker government, talks with The Daily Star about the upcoming election.

She sheds light on the various promises made by the ruling Awami League and the opposition BNP in their election manifestos unveiled on December 18 on a one-to-one with Shakhawat Liton, planning editor of The Daily Star.

Sultana Kamal said that to bring back people’s trust, the political parties have to fulfill the promises they make in their manifestos.

“People won’t believe only in talks. I personally think that often the manifestos are created to win over the hearts of people. These are made just for the sake of saying something,” she said.

About the overall election environment in the country, Sultana Kamal said, “This time, we are in an unprecedented situation now. The government is still in power, the ministers are still ministers. So, they are being able to deliver their messages to people without any barrier. But the other party is not getting the privilege.”

“If from the beginning so much injustice and disparity prevail, how will we expect justice from them later?”

Watch the video to know more!

The Daily Star is launching a new series of talk show ‘The Election Talks 2018’ where experts will be analysing all aspects of the upcoming general elections, contemporary politics, events and incidents.

In today’s episode, Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), talks with the show host Shakhawat Liton, planning editor of The Daily Star.

The show is the sixth episode of The Daily Star’s political talk show series ahead of the December 30 election.

"Law needed to prevent conflict of interest"

In the election manifesto of Jatiya Oikyafront revealed today, it has announced that a significant number of chairman posts in the parliamentary standing committees will be preserved for the representative political parties.

Commenting on this issue, Dr Iftekharuzzaman said that the main barrier for the parliamentary committees on the way to be effective is the clash of interests. Those who become the members or heads of the committees try to fulfil their own interests.

As an example, it has been seen in earlier parliaments that the members of parliament (MPs) who own businesses are kept in the committees related to their business, he added.  

Iftekharuzzaman considers this conflict of interest to be the main hindrance towards establishing good governance in Bangladesh.

He hopes that to solve this problem all the politicians will agree to formulate laws preventing such conflict of interests.

Commenting on the work culture of the Anti Corruption Commission, Dr Iftekharuzzaman said that these commissions are formed by the government and are run by government money, but their responsibility is not to become a government institution.

They are created to ensure accountability of the government, he said.    

But when the commissioners are recruited based on party considerations, there's nothing to do other than just sitting idly, he added.  

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The Daily Star is launching a new series of talk show ‘The Election Talks 2018’ where experts will be analysing all aspects of the upcoming general elections, contemporary politics, events and incidents.

In today’s episode, Former cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder talks with the show host Shakhawat Liton, planning editor of The Daily Star.

The show is the seventh episode of The Daily Star’s political talk show series ahead of the December 30 election.

During unveiling the election manifesto for the 11th parliamentary election, the ruling Awami League highlighted a chart of development ensured in its last 10 years of rule.

Ali Imam Majumder expressed his solidarity with the Awami League’s claim in ensuring the country’s financial and infrastructural development.

On the other hand, Imam contradicted the party’s claim in improving the administrative activities. “I think, administrative degeneration has been done since the last one decade.”

The holding of a free and fair election has been made difficult due to the politicisation of the civil administration and the security agencies including police, he said. 

The Awami League was not eager in keeping the civil administration free from political influence during its last two-term rule, he said.

When asked whether democratic practices in the country have been interrupted as the government was engaged in carrying out development activities, he said democracy and development is a complementary matter to each other and ensuring of development of a country becomes possible when democracy exists there.