General election in Bangladesh June 1996

The June 1996 general election in Bangladesh took place on June 12, 1996. It was the seventh parliamentary election since independence and the second this year, as an election had already taken place on February 15, 1996.

prehistory

Crisis from 1994

The 1991 parliamentary election was won by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and subsequently formed a government with BNP leader Khaleda Zia as prime minister. The following legislative period was turbulent. On March 20, 1994, a by-election took place in the Magura-2 constituency , which was won by the BNP candidate. The opposition, primarily the Awami League , of which the constituency was one of the strongholds, sharply criticized the circumstances of the election and accused the government of massive election fraud. According to the Awami politicians, the BNP leadership wanted to force a BNP election victory in this constituency at any cost after its defeat in the mayoral elections in the two largest cities in the country, Dhaka and Chittagong in January 1994. The opposition parties, mainly the Awami League, the Jatiya Party and Jamaat-e-Islami , expressed fears that the upcoming parliamentary election under a BNP government would not be free and without electoral fraud and called for the establishment of a neutral, non-party trustee government the election, which should ensure a fair course of the election. On May 5, 1994, 8 opposition parties boycotted the opening of parliament and on December 28, 194, all 153 opposition members announced their resignation from their parliamentary seats in order to emphasize the demand for a new election under a neutral trustee government. In the following months the opposition acted with extra-parliamentary actions and organized demonstrations, strikes, hartals , which kept the whole country in unrest. Public order threatened to collapse and the crime rate rose significantly. The government under Khaleda Zia was unaffected by the opposition demands and was determined to rule through the full legislative period. Attempts at mediation by representatives of the Commonwealth were unsuccessful. After the opposition had announced a boycott of the by-elections scheduled for December 3, 1995 in the 153 constituencies that had become vacant, President Abdur Rahman Biswas dissolved parliament on November 24, 1994 and at the same time asked Khaleda Zia to remain in office temporarily until the election date to stay.

Parliamentary election in February 1996 and the following general strike

The BNP government did not respond to the opposition's demand for the establishment of a neutral trustee government and held the parliamentary election on February 15, 1996. This election was boycotted by all major opposition parties, so that the BNP easily won a large majority of the constituencies (212 out of 300). The turnout was officially given as 21% and observed by observers to be below 10%. According to observers, the election was marked by massive irregularities. The opposition responded to this development by calling an indefinite general strike from March 9, 1996, which was to continue until its demands were met. On March 11, 1996, about 500 representatives met from the business community under the aegis of the Association of Bangladeshi commercial and industrial chambers ( Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries ) and demanded an ultimatum to the President to cancel the election and the way to a Free choice under a trustee government. In the days that followed, more and more social groups and associations (teachers, judges, doctors, journalists, trade unionists, etc.) joined the ultimatum.

Constitutional amendment and establishment of a trustee government

The crisis reached its climax on March 25, 1996, when large sections of state employees also adopted the opposition's demands and threatened a strike from March 28, 1996. The government then relented and on March 26, 1996, with its super-majority in parliament, passed the 13th amendment to the constitution, which authorized the president to set up a neutral transitional government before elections. The amendment came into effect two days later with the signature of the president. Khaleda Zia resigned as Prime Minister and on March 30, 1996, former Chief Justice Mohammed Habibur Rahman was sworn in as head of government of the Trustees' Government. On the same day, the president dissolved parliament. In the period that followed, the trustee government endeavored to get a certain degree of livelihood with all political forces in order not to be branded as biased by one side or the other.

The following election campaign took place predominantly between the two major parties, the BNP and the Awami League. The BNP attacked the latter as incompetent, anti-democratic and indigenous. The Awami League admitted mistakes made during the rule of Mujibur Rahman in the 1970s, promised economic and social reforms and declared that it would not renew the 25-year friendship treaty with India.

Impending coup in May 1996

In May 1996, it appeared that the military was about to launch a coup. General Abu Saleh Mohammed Nasim, the chief of the general staff, had refused to obey the president's orders and to suspend two of his generals who had been politically active in parties contrary to the regulations. Instead, General Nasim had ordered the transfer of army units to Dhaka. Thereupon the president dismissed the general on May 20, 1996 and had army units loyal to the government relocated to Dhaka and guarded the presidential palace. The crisis was resolved and there was no coup.

Election process

The election took place on June 12, 1996 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. local time. Voting took place in 300 constituencies in 25,952 polling stations with 114,749 ballot boxes. Out of a population of 119,957,313, 56,716,935 were eligible to vote. 81 political parties and a total of 2574 candidates, including 36 female candidates, who ran in 48 constituencies, applied. 42,880,576 voters took part in the election, corresponding to a participation of 74.96%. 462,302 (0.81%) of the votes were invalid and 42,418,274 were valid. Due to irregularities, the election commission ordered the repetition of elections in 122 polling stations in 27 constituencies. The re-election took place on June 19, 1996.

Results

Primary election result of June 12, 1996

Political party	Candidates	Won constituencies	be right	as a percentage of the valid votes
Awami League	0300	146	15,882,792	037.44
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)	0300	116	14.255.986	033.61
Jatiya party	0293	032	6,954,981	016.40
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh	0300	003	3,653,013	008.61
Islami Oikya Jote	0166	001	461.517	001.09
Independent candidates	0284	001	449,618	001.06
Faker party	0241	000	167,597	000.40
Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Rab)	0067	001	97.916	000.23
Bangladesh Workers Party	0034	000	56,404	000.13
Gano forum	0104	000	54,250	000.13
Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Inu)	0030th	000	50,944	000.12
Bangladeshi Communist Party	0036	000	48,549	000.11
Jamiate Ulumaye Mam Bangladesh	0008th	000	45,585	000.11
Sammilita Sangram Parishad	0009	000	40,803	000.10
Freedom Party	0054	000	38,974	000.09
Samridhya Bangladesh Andolon	0010	000	27,083	000.06
Bangladesh Islami Front	0023	000	23,696	000.06
Bangladesh Khelafat Andolon	0046	000	18,397	000.04
Bangladesh Jatiyabadi Awami League (Most)	0003	000	11,190	000.03
Islami Shasantantra Andolon	0020th	000	11,159	000.03
Bangladeshi Samajtantrik Dal (Khalekuzza)	0031	000	10,234	000.02
61 other small parties	0215	000	57,586	000.10
All in all	2574	300	42,418,274	100.00

Won constituencies by division

The Awami League became the strongest party in 4 of Bangladesh's 6 divisions . In the Chittagong and Rajshahi divisions , the BNP was the strongest party.

division	Awami League	BNP	Jatiya party	Jamaat	Islami Okiya Jote	Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Rab)	Independent	seats total
Barishal	11	5	5	1	1	0	0	23
Chittagong	23	34	1	0	0	1	0	59
Dhaka	59	30th	1	0	0	0	0	90
Rajshahi	18th	32	21st	1	0	0	0	72
Khulna	22nd	12	1	1	0	0	1	37
Sylhet	13	3	3	0	0	0	0	19th
total	146	116	32	3	1	1	1	300

By-elections

Since 26 candidates ran in more than one constituency at the same time and some of them had won more than one constituency (Khaleda Zia was successful in 5, Hasina Wajed in 3 and Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 5 constituencies), they could only accept one mandate. By-elections had to take place in the other constituencies. This affected the following 16 constituencies: Rangpur-2 (20), Rangpur-5 (23), Rangpur-6 (24), Kurigram-3 (27), Bogra-6 (41), Bogra-7 (42), Sirajganj -1 (61), Bagerhat-1 (95), Khulna-1 (99), Bhola-1 (117), Pirojpur-2 (130), Shariatpur-1 (220), Sylhet-4 (231), Lakshmipur- 2 (276), Chittagong-1 (279) and Chittagong-13 (291). The by-election in Bhola-1 (117) could not be held due to a legal objection, so that this constituency remained unrepresented in the following legislative period. The by-elections on September 5, 1996 showed the following results (net gains / losses in brackets): Awami League 8 (+3), BNP 3 (-3), Jatiya Party 3 (-2), Independent 1 ( +1).

Constituency results map

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  Election results in the constituencies (for electoral division, see the list of constituencies in Bangladesh )

Developments after the election

Since the Awami League failed to gain an absolute majority in parliamentary seats, it entered into an alliance of convenience with the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Rab) and the Jatiya Party. As a result of this alliance, the party leader of the Jatiya Party, Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who had stood as a candidate from prison, was released from custody under certain conditions.

In addition, 30 female MPs were elected

After the election, the new Awami League government made use of the constitutional option to elect 30 additional female MPs. In alliance with the Jatiya Party, 27 Awami League and 3 Jatiya Party MPs were elected. This increased the nominal strength of parliament to 329 members.

Assessment of the election process and results

The election was accompanied by a Commonwealth observer group. In their final report, the group of observers came to the conclusion that, overall, it was a free and credible election. There was no evidence of major election fraud.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ M Serajul Islam: Memories of Magura 1994. New Age , February 10, 2020, accessed on May 23, 2020 (English). 
2. ↑ Mashreque MS, MA Rashid: Parliamentary By-Election in Bangladesh: The Study of Magura-2 constituency . In: Asian Profile . tape 23 , no. 1 , February 1995, p. 67-80 (English).
3. ↑ Golam Hossain: Bangladesh in 1995: Politics of Intransigence . In: Asian Survey . tape 36 , no. 2 . University of California Press, February 1996, pp. 196-203 , JSTOR : 2645817 (English).
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Salahuddin Ahmed: Bangladesh: Past and Present . APH Publishing Corporation, ISBN 978-81-7648-469-5 , pp. 233-235 (English).
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Stanley A. Kochanek: Bangladesh in 1996: The 25th Year of Independence . In: Asian Survey . tape 37 , no. 2 . University of California Press, February 1997, pp. 136-142 , JSTOR : 2645479 (English).
6. ^ Election. Banglapedia, accessed May 24, 2020 . 
7. ↑ M. Rashiduzzaman: Political Unrest and Democracy in Bangladesh . In: Asian Survey . tape 37 , no. 3 . University of California Press, March 1997, pp. 254-268 , JSTOR : 2645662 (English).
8. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Statistical report: 7th Jatiya Shangshad Election. (pdf) Election Commission of Bangladesh, accessed on June 1, 2020 (English). 
9. ^ ^{A b} The Parliamentary Elections in Bangladesh, June 12, 1996 . In: Commonwealth Observer Group (Ed.): Commonwealth Election Reports . January 1, 1997, doi : 10.14217 / 9781848595903-en (English).
10. ↑ Dhaka-10 by-poll Symbol Dispute: Lawyers question handling of case. The Daily Star, June 2, 2004, accessed May 31, 2020 . 
11. ↑ Farah Deeba Chowdhury: Problems of Women's Political Participation in Bangladesh: An Empirical Study. (pdf) Mount Saint Vincent University, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, June 10, 2004, p. 70 , accessed on May 31, 2020 . 
12. ^ Zillur R. Khan: Bangladesh's Experiments with Parliamentary Democracy . In: Asian Survey . tape 37 , no. 6 . University of California Press, June 1997, pp. 575-589 , JSTOR : 2645531 (English).