2024-03-17 17:46:11
The National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) have released the final report of their Technical Assessment Mission (TAM) that came to Bangladesh to monitor the possible election violence situation before, during and after the 12th National Assembly elections held on January 7 this year.
The IRI published the report on its website from Washington, DC on Saturday (March 16).
This report presents a thematic analysis of various types of electoral violence and the mitigation of the risk of violence in future elections, international cooperation, respect for the sovereignty of Bangladesh, based on the comparative experiences of IRI and NDI by the Election Commission of Bangladesh, executive and legal departments of the government, political parties, civil society and Recommendations to other stakeholders are included.
Mission members found that during the 2024 election period, campaign period, election day, and other periods, physical and online violence decreased compared to previous election cycles. This is primarily due to the absence of effective nationwide electoral competition and the government’s heightened focus on national security. Nevertheless, the quality of the January 7 election has been undermined by incidents of violence by the state, the ruling party and the opposition, as well as the pre-election environment marked by zero-sum politics, violence between political leaders, curtailment of civil liberties and deterioration of freedom of speech and association. .
Manpreet Singh Anand, NDI’s regional director for Asia-Pacific, said the report will contribute to a valuable roadmap for more peaceful elections in Bangladesh in the future. Leaders across the socio-political sphere, including political parties, governments and civil society, need to reform the rules, practices and norms of electoral politics in order to foster a non-violent political environment.
IRI’s senior director for Asia-Pacific, Johanna Cao, said election violence is a major obstacle to citizen participation. To make the elections of Bangladesh fully participatory, all parties must prioritize non-violent politics.
During their stay in Bangladesh, TAM’s five accredited long-term analysts met with election and government officials, security personnel, political party leaders in the political arena, journalists, civil society organizations including youth, women, persons with disabilities and religious minorities, as well as accredited international observer missions.
It is a joint pre-election assessment mission, conducted by NDI and IRI from 8 to 11 October 2023. PEAM’s observations informed the framework and scope of the technical evaluation, which was consistent with Bangladeshi law and the 2005 United Nations Declaration of Principles on International Election Observation.
Note that IRI and NDI are non-partisan, non-governmental organizations that support and strengthen democratic institutions and practices worldwide. These two institutes have collectively observed more than 200 elections in more than 50 countries over the past 30 years.