Bangladesh's Feb election unlikely to shift power to elected authority: Report

Dhaka, Jan 27 (IANS) Bangladesh's February 12 election may alter the composition of parliament, but it is unlikely to change the country’s power structure anytime soon. The nullification of the existing constitution through a referendum, the delay in the swearing-in of elected representatives, and the concentration of extraordinary authority in a revolutionary framework collectively preserve the continuity of an “unelected power” under the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, in the guise of a democratic process, a report said on Tuesday.

“Bangladesh is heading toward a national election on February 12 with a familiar promise and an unfamiliar reality. The promise is restoration: ballots, representatives, and a return to constitutional normalcy after reforms. The reality is far less reassuring. Even if the election proceeds peacefully and even if a party such as the BNP emerges victorious, Muhammad Yunus will not be replaced by an elected government anytime soon,” a report in Eurasia Review detailed.

According to the report, the reason lies not in voter arithmetic but in a “carefully engineered post-election architecture” that reshapes authority, postpones accountability, and converts an interim arrangement into a permanent structure.

“The first clue is procedural, almost bureaucratic in appearance. Under the prevailing narrative, the newly elected members of parliament will not immediately form a government. Instead, they will sit as a constitutional reform council or ‘Constituent Assembly’ (variously described as a Gonoporishod) with a six-month mandate to rewrite parts of the constitution and pass foundational laws. During this 180-day window, the Yunus-led administration remains firmly in place,” it stated.

The report highlighted that elections, in effect, will not lead to a transfer of executive authority in Bangladesh but will entrench an interregnum in which unelected power governs alongside elected figures stripped of real power.

Under this framework, it said, Bangladesh interim government’s Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus would move beyond the interim role to become the central authority overseeing a Constituent Assembly tasked with implementing the July Charter.

“Once completed, a so-called ‘revolutionary government’ would emerge, endowed with sweeping powers. There may still be a Parliament. There may still be a Prime Minister. But these institutions would function largely as ceremonial or rubber-stamp bodies, while real power flows upward to a supreme arbiter. Comparisons to Iran’s Supreme Leader or North Korea’s political structure may sound hyperbolic, but the logic (unchecked authority justified by revolutionary necessity) is unmistakably familiar,” the report emphasised.

It stressed that what is notable is how little attention this blueprint has received from many of the political parties contesting the election.

“The BNP, despite being a major contender, appears insufficiently alert to the trap embedded in the process. Having signed onto the draft of the July Charter, it may already have conceded the legal ground on which any future challenge would rest. Jamaat-e-Islami, by contrast, is fully aware — and supportive — seeing in this arrangement an opportunity to advance its own ideological ambitions,” the report noted.

--IANS

scor/as