We Bengalis call the night of 25th March 1971 as black night. Because on this night, the Pakistani invading force on the Bengali nation indiscriminately massacred the sleeping people. Then a bloody war started in the country which lasted for nine months. Even if we got independence on December 16, 1971, are we really free?
Another black night like the black night of March 25, 1971 is December 29, 2018. On this night, the Awami League government, with their pet gangsters, Chhatra League, police administration, filled the ballot boxes the night before the polls and took away the voting rights of the common people. Similarly, the Awami League government formed the government in 2014 by depriving the people of their right to vote.
The whole world now believes that there were no elections in Bangladesh in 2014 and 2018, there was a vote-stealing farce.
A report by Prothom Alo on January 15, 2019 said that according to a study by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), 33 of the fifty constituencies selected by them in the 2018 national elections were sealed the night before the election. The agency termed the election questionable and flawed. However, the Election Commission and the Awami League government promised to ensure the security of all polling stations across the country on election day. Like all other promises, the Election Commission failed to fulfill this too.
Mass arrests of opposition party workers in most of the polling stations, torture, inducing common people to vote for boat brands and all these were in the elections of 2014 and 2018. The attack by Chhatra League and the silence of the police administration prove that Awami League took away the voting rights of the common people by holding an organized election.
It is your democratic right to vote in a national election in a democratic country, but you go to the polling station on election day and discover that someone else has already cast your vote. People of Bangladesh have seen in 2014 and 2018 how even dead people vote. And behind them how the Election Commission nominated by Awami League took away the right to vote. Today there is no democratic right in the country, the common people do not have the right to vote. We only see two things in the country, one is the theft of votes and the other is the extreme corruption of Awami League leaders, workers, ministers and the head of government’s son. From theft of relief blankets to theft of goats, theft of votes and theft of reserves, the Awami League government is not stopping any theft.
Bakshal started to kill democracy by establishing it Now this fascist government has taken away the ownership of the country by taking away democracy, voting rights and endangering the livelihood of the people.
Writer: Apurbo Ahmed Jewel
