General election in Bangladesh 2001
The 2001 parliamentary elections in Bangladesh took place on October 1, 2001 . 300 members of the Jatiya Sangsad , the unicameral parliament of Bangladesh, were elected . It was the eighth parliamentary election since the country gained independence.
prehistory
In the last parliamentary election in June 1996 , the Awami League won a majority of seats and Hasina Wajed was elected Prime Minister. From the beginning of 2001, her government saw itself increasingly criticized because the government did not seem able to curb the increasing violence and lawlessness in public spaces. There were regular shootings in all major cities in Bangladesh, and weapons caches and explosives were often discovered during police raids. The country seemed to be drifting towards anarchy. The Awami League government also admitted this deficit, but blamed the opposition for the situation, as they wanted to systematically destabilize the government. The opposition, led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), failed to exploit the blatant abuses for their own purposes. Against opposition voices and concerns from human rights activists, the government passed the Public Safety Act , a special law that gave the government enhanced police powers. In the period that followed, the government used the law extensively to intimidate the opposition and to arrest opposition politicians. There have been reports of state corruption, murders and revenge killings with state involvement, vigilante justice, and illegal confiscation of private property, so that the Awami government's record has increasingly come into a bad light.
The prime minister tried to split the opposition front by re-imprisoning ex-general and Jatiya Party leader Hossain Mohammad Ershad , who was on parole after being convicted of corruption. He was then released from prison on the condition, which was not publicly stated, that he should terminate the coalition with the BNP, which he promptly did. Ershad's Jatiya Party formed an electoral alliance with several predominantly Islamist parties, the Islami Jatiya Oikya Front . Despite the exit of the Jatiya Party from the opposition alliance, it essentially continued to exist. Hasina Wajed's power-political maneuvers damaged the prime minister's reputation and played into the hands of the opposition.
In March 2001 the Prime Minister announced elections for the summer of that year. However, the transfer of executive power to the constitutional trustee government (which should guarantee a free and unmanipulated election) did not take place until July 15, 2001, when the retired former Supreme Justice Latifur Rahman was sworn in as head of the trustee government by President Shahabuddin Ahmed . Rahman arranged for a staff exchange at the top of the main authorities. This took into account the opposition's fears that Hasina Wajed's shop stewards, who are still in key positions, could influence the election in their favor. The trustee government found itself in a difficult position and had to accomplish the balancing act of not offending either of the two political camps too much with its measures.
Election process
The election took place as a simple majority vote in 300 one-person constituencies . The constituency boundaries were last revised in 1985 (minor corrections were made in 1995). Because of the uneven population growth, there had been considerable imbalances since then with regard to the population of the individual constituencies, so that particularly highly urbanized areas were relatively underrepresented. Candidates could register their candidacy until August 29, 2001. A decision on the admission to election was made on August 30 and 31, 2001. 54 political parties took part in the election, but many of them were more or less one-person events. Of the total of 1939 candidates, 33 candidates applied in more than one constituency (Hasina Wajed and Khaleda Zia each ran in 5 constituencies). 38 candidates (2 percent) were women. The election took place between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. local time in 29,978 polling stations across the country. At the instigation of the trustee government, the army was deployed during the election to ensure orderly conditions.
The process of the election was observed by observer missons from the EU, a delegation headed by ex-US President Jimmy Carter and the Bangladeshi human rights organization Odhikar and the Asian Network For Free Elections (ANFREL). Regardless of the level of violence and abuse, the election was hailed as the fairest election that Bangladesh had seen to date and as, by and large, "free, fair, peaceful and orderly".
Results
Nationwide overall result
The total number of votes stated was 56,185,707, which corresponds to a turnout of 75.59% with 74,946,364 eligible voters. 623,661 eligible voters (0.8%) in 204 polling stations in 86 constituencies could not vote on election day due to external circumstances. Since the election led to a very clear majority, no by-election was held in these polling stations. 55,736,625 votes were valid (99.2%) and 449,082 (0.8%) were invalid. Because the BNP candidate in the constituency of Cox Bazar-3 (296) died unexpectedly and because a complaint was filed against the cancellation of 7 polling stations in the constituency of Munshigonj-4 , the elections in Cox Bazar-3 did not take place until November 1, 2001 and in the missing constituencies of Munshigonj-4 (179) on November 10, 2001.
| Political party | symbol | Candidates | Won constituencies |
be right | as a percentage of the valid votes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) | Bundle of rice | 252 | 193 | 22,833,978 | 40.97 |
| Awami League | boat | 300 | 62 | 22,365,516 | 40.13 |
| Islami Jatiya Oikya Front | plow | 281 | 14th | 4,038,453 | 7.25 |
| Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh | scissors | 31 | 17th | 2,385,361 | 4.28 |
| Non-party | - | 486 | 6th | 2,262,073 | 4.06 |
| Jatiya Party (NF) | Rice Bundle (NF) | 11 | 4th | 621.772 | 1.12 |
| Islami Oikya Jote | Rice Bundle / Minar | 7th | 2 | 376.343 | 0.68 |
| Krisak Sramik Janata League | Gamucha | 39 | 1 | 261,344 | 0.47 |
| Jatiya Party (Manju) | bicycle | 140 | 1 | 243,617 | 0.44 |
| Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal | Torch (mashal) | 76 | 0 | 119,382 | 0.21 |
| Bangladesh Communist Party | sickle | 64 | 0 | 56,991 | 0.10 |
| Workers Party of Bangladesh | hammer | 32 | 0 | 40,484 | 0.07 |
| Bangladesh Islami Front | candle | 18th | 0 | 30,761 | 0.06 |
| Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (BASAD-Khalekuzzaman) | padlock | 37 | 0 | 21,164 | 0.04 |
| Jamiate Ulamae Islam Bangladesh | Date palm | 1 | 0 | 19,256 | 0.03 |
| Bangladesh Khelafat Andolon | Banyan Tree | 30th | 0 | 13,472 | 0.02 |
| 39 other small parties | (various) | 134 | 0 | 46,658 | 0.07 |
| All in all | 1939 | 300 | 55.736.625 | 100.00 | |
By-elections
Since several candidates ran in several constituencies at the same time and had won more than one constituency (Khaleda Zia had won 5 and Hasina Wajed 4 constituencies), they could only accept one mandate. By-elections had to take place in the other constituencies. This affected the following 11 constituencies: Bogra-7 (42), Khulna-2 (100), Feni-1 (266), Lakshmipur-2 (276), Narail-1 (93), Narail-2 (94), Barguna -3 (112), Moulavibazar-3 (236), Manikgonj-2 (173), Faridpur-4 (212), Munshigonj-1 (176). In two by-elections on November 12, 2001 and January 17, 2002, 9 mandates went to the BNP (4 of which were unopposed), one to Islami Okiya Jote and one to an independent. As a result of the replacement, the BNP won a total of two seats (195 instead of 193), the Awami League lost 4 (58 instead of 62), Islami Okiya Jote won one seat (3 instead of 2) and an independent was added (7 instead of 6 ).
Won constituencies by division
The BNP won an absolute majority of the constituencies in 5 of Bangladesh's 6 divisions . Only in Sylhet did it achieve a relative majority. She achieved her best result in the Chittagong division.
| division | BNP | Awami League | Jamaat | Islami Jatiya Oikya Front |
Jatiya Party (NF) |
Islami Okiya Jote |
Krishak Sramik Janata League |
Jatiya Party (Manju) |
Independent | seats total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barishal | 18th | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 23 |
| Chittagong | 50 | 4th | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 59 |
| Dhaka | 56 | 30th | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 90 |
| Rajshahi | 42 | 9 | 6th | 14th | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 72 |
| Khulna | 20th | 6th | 7th | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37 |
| Sylhet | 9 | 7th | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 19th |
| total | 195 | 58 | 17th | 14th | 4th | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7th | 300 |
Constituency results map
Election results in the constituencies (for electoral division, see the list of constituencies in Bangladesh )
After the election
Shortly before the election, most observers expected a close election result, possibly with the result of a hung parliament . The two main protagonists Hasina Wajed and the BNP chairwoman Khaleda Zia each predicted an election victory for their parties. Ershad stated that neither party would win a majority and that the Jatiya Party would be the decisive factor in the balance . In this respect, the very clear election victory of the BNP-led coalition was a surprise, but also more an effect of the prevailing majority voting system, as the two major parties received almost the same number of votes (40.97% versus 40.13%). Including the by-elections, the BNP won 195 of the 300 constituencies (65.0%) and was thus just ahead of a two-thirds majority. The two Islamist parties Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote , allied with the BNP, won 17 (5.7%) and 3 (1%) seats. The relative success of these two Islamist parties and their subsequent participation in government received worldwide attention, as the Islamist terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center took place on September 11, 2001, just under three weeks before the election date, and US President George W. Bush the war against terror and especially against the Taliban in Afghanistan. On October 10, 2001, Khaleda Zia was sworn in as the new Prime Minister.
After the election, there was considerable excess of violence, which was mainly committed by supporters of the victorious parties BNP and Jamaat against Awami supporters. The Hindu minority was disproportionately affected by the violence. The new BNP-led government failed to curb lawlessness in the public space the year after the election, so the number of crimes even increased. By October 2002 there were an average of 325 murders, 300 rapes and about 18 acid attacks per month .
Later addition of female MPs in 2005
In order to increase the proportion of women in parliament, the Bangladeshi constitution provided for a temporary decree that a certain number of parliamentary seats should be reserved for female members of parliament. These MEPs were elected indirectly, that is, they were elected by Parliament. The number of these reserved seats was 15 initially and 30 from 1979 onwards. This provision expired in 1987 but re-enacted in 1990 and expired again in 2000. In the parliament newly elected in 2001, only 6 of the 300 members were women (2%). Women's rights groups campaigned for a new quota system. On May 16, 2004, the Jatiya Sangsad passed the 14th amendment to the constitution with a comfortable two-thirds majority of the governing parties, according to which 45 female MPs should be elected for the next 10 years. In contrast to earlier regulations, where the respective majority parliamentary group was able to determine all elected representatives, these were in future to be allocated according to the seat share of the parties. The 45 women were elected on September 6, 2005 and October 2, 2005, so that the number of members of parliament increased to 345.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d M. Rashiduzzaman: Bangladesh in 2001: The Election and a New Political Reality? In: Asian Survey . tape 42 , no. 1 . University of California Press, February 2002, pp. 183–191 , doi : 10.1525 / as.2002.42.1.183 , JSTOR : 10.1525 / as.2002.42.1.183 (English).
- ^ Subrata K. Mitra, Siegried Wolf, Jivanta Schöttli: A Political and Economic Dictionary of South Asia . 1st edition. Routledge, 2006, ISBN 978-1-85743-210-7 , pp. 187 (English).
- ↑ M. Rashiduzzaman: Can The Caretakers Satisfy All? Outlook India, August 6, 2001, accessed May 11, 2020 .
- ↑ Shakhawat Liton: Final list of redrawn JS seats published. The Daily Star, July 11, 2008, accessed May 10, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c d e f Statistical Report: 8th Parliament Election October 1, 2001. (pdf) Bangladesh Election Commission, April 2002, pp. 2–4 , accessed on May 10, 2020 (English).
- ↑ Bangladesh Parliamentary Elections October 1, 2001 - European Union Election Observation Mission Final Report. (pdf) EU observer mission, accessed on May 11, 2020 .
- ↑ Postelection Statement by Former US President Jimmy Carter on Bangladesh Elections, Oct. 5, 2001. The Carter Center, October 4, 2001, accessed May 11, 2020 .
- ↑ a b 8th Parliamentary Election 2001, Bangladesh - REPORT. (pdf) Odhikar, accessed on May 11, 2020 (English).
- ↑ Khaleda sworn in premier. Dawn (Pakistan), October 11, 2001, accessed May 11, 2020 .
- ^ Alastair Lawson-Tancred: Bangladesh Government: One year on. BBC News, October 11, 2002, accessed May 11, 2020 .
- ^ Pranab Kumar Panday: Representation without Participation: Quotas for Women in Bangladesh . In: International Political Science Review / Revue internationale de science politique . tape 29 , no. 4 . Sage Publications, September 2008, pp. 489-512 , JSTOR : 20445157 (English).
- ↑ Haroon Habib: A controversial amendment. Frontline, June 18, 2004, accessed May 11, 2020 .
- ↑ Nizam Ahmed, Sadik Hasan: Alangkar or Ahangkar? Reserved-Seat Women Members in the Bangladesh Parliament . In: N. Ahmed (Ed.): Women in Governing Institutions in South Asia . Springer-Verlag, 2018, ISBN 978-3-319-57474-5 , pp. 17-18 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-319-57475-2_2 (English, pdf ).
- ↑ BANGLADESH Jatiya Sangsad (Parliament) - ELECTIONS HELD IN 2001. Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), accessed on May 11, 2020 (English).
