Yunus vows to prevent repeat of ‘election robbery’

Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus has pledged to put in place safeguards to ensure that what he described as “election robbery” can never happen again, after a high-level inquiry concluded that the country’s last three national elections were systematically manipulated to keep the Awami League in power.

The findings were submitted on Monday afternoon to Yunus at the state guest house, Jamuna, by the National Election Investigation Commission, which examined the parliamentary elections of 2014, 2018, and 2024.

The commission was headed by former judge Justice Shamim Hasnain and included lawyers, academics, and senior legal professionals.

According to the report, the 2014 election was “entirely staged and pre-planned,” with 153 seats decided without contest and the remaining 147 subjected to what the commission described as a sham competition. The arrangement, it said, was made at the highest level of the state to ensure the Awami League’s continuation in office.

The commission found that widespread international criticism of the uncontested 2014 election prompted the Sheikh Hasina-led government to pursue a strategy of making the 2018 election appear “competitive.”

“Opposition parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), failed to grasp the depth of the plan and participated,” the commission members told the media following the meeting.

Speaking after receiving the report, Yunus said the scale and brazenness of the manipulation went beyond what many had previously understood.

“We had heard about vote-rigging; we knew parts of it,” he said. “But the way the entire process was shamelessly distorted, the system crushed and reshaped, and verdicts written on paper to suit those in power – all this must be placed before the nation. A complete record must be preserved.”

He added that public money had been used to stage elections that ultimately punished the electorate.

“The people of this country watched helplessly. They could do nothing,” Yunus said. “To give them some measure of relief, those responsible must be brought into the open. We must know who did this and how. And we must ensure that election robbery never happens again.”

The commission estimated that in the 2018 election, ballots were stamped overnight in favour of the Awami League in around 80 per cent of polling centres. It found evidence of “dishonest competition” within the administration to deliver victories for the ruling party, leading in some cases to reported voter turnout exceeding 100 per cent.

In the 2024 election, after the BNP and other opposition parties boycotted the polls, the report said the authorities adopted a tactic of fielding “dummy” candidates to fabricate an appearance of competition.

Across all three elections, the commission concluded, “innovative plans” were taken at the highest levels of the state and implemented through the coordinated use of sections of the administration, police, election commission, and intelligence agencies. A special group of officials, informally known as the “election cell,” was formed to oversee the execution of these plans.

Between 2014 and 2024, the report said, effective control of the electoral process shifted away from the Election Commission to the civil administration, which became the dominant force in managing elections.

The commission has submitted a set of recommendations alongside its findings. Yunus did not detail them publicly but indicated they would form the basis of reforms aimed at restoring public confidence in Bangladesh’s electoral system.

mirmostafiz@yahoo.com