A difficult situation

Having a partisan caretaker government and a partisan Election Commission takes away any possibility of a free and fair election. Even if the Awami League is resorting to mob justice, a form of justice, which can only be titled as revenge, I feel that it is impossible for them to come to a solution with the caretaker government and the Election Commission that are in place now.

Unfortunately, we Bangladeshis do not have the choice of electing a party, which will give us good governance. But what we must have the right for is choosing even between a rock and a hard place. If an election is not free and fair, it takes away that choice from us. If votes can be rigged, then the essential characteristic of a democracy, one man one vote, has been taken away from me.

It is, therefore, my opinion that no political party should participate in an election if it takes place under these partisan circumstances. I have heard many people who talk of freedom, rights and the good of the nation, saying that the Awami League should assent and come to a compromise. What they fail to understand is that there is no place for compromise. We may lose economic growth every day, we may be restrained in our homes every day, we may even have to watch people being beaten to death on television every day. And even though this should stop, participation in elections, unless the requisite conditions are created, will be the greatest failure of any political party, which cares about the nation. My right to have my vote count is the most essential right I have as a citizen of a democratic country. And to give in now, to compromise that right so as to have peace and economic growth along with a biased election, is not an option. It is better to shed blood to protect our right to choose who will govern us, than to have the right of choosing who will govern us taken away from us.