Peace on campaign trail non-negotiable

As the nation approaches the February 12 election, the campaign has devolved into a turf war in some constituencies. A new intelligence report from the Bangladesh Police identifies 13 constituencies as “highly risky” due to escalating violence surrounding the election. The geography of this violence is telling. It is not concentrated solely in the former strongholds of the fallen Awami League, such as Gopalganj or Faridpur (though security there remains tight). Instead, the flashpoints are in districts such as Dhaka, Cumilla, and Pabna, where heavyweights from the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami are turning on one another.

Data from the police headquarters paints a disturbing picture of conflict. Since the polling schedule was announced in December, there have been at least 57 clashes in 50 constituencies, which have left 257 people injured and four dead. Nearly half of these clashes occurred between members of the BNP and Jamaat. Another eight were internal clashes within the BNP itself.

In Dhaka-8, the BNP’s standing committee member Mirza Abbas faces Jamaat-allied NCP's Nasiruddin Patwary. In this constituency, there have been reports not of disagreements over policy, but of “eggings” and intimidation that suggest a reversion to the muscular politics that key stakeholders of the July uprising, including the interim government, pledged to eradicate. The high-risk designation of this seat shows how quickly, and easily, the fight for democracy can descend into a fight for territorial dominance. The tension is also acute in Dhaka-15, where the contest pits the national clout of the Jamaat head, Shafiqur Rahman, against the entrenched local influence of his BNP rival, Shafiqul Islam Khan Milton.

The police, under Operation Devil Hunt phase two, have arrested over 24,000 and recovered hundreds of firearms since mid-December. The sheer scale of the dragnet—averaging hundreds of arrests a day—suggests a jittery security apparatus trying to establish stability. But the violence still erupting in some constituencies of BNP and Jamaat stalwarts also bodes ill for post-election stability. The vicious competition for these "high-risk" seats reveals a political culture still addicted to zero-sum games. If the BNP and Jamaat cannot campaign without hurting each other, they will struggle to govern without doing the same.

We urge the police to fortify vulnerable polling centres and deploy mobile teams to patrol the streets. But the state alone cannot guarantee order; the onus also lies with the contenders, who must demonstrate political maturity. All parties and independent candidates must immediately rein in unruly members and supporters. The singular objective must be to ensure a peaceful vote. As the interim government enters the twilight of its term, its success will be partly measured by the confidence of voters on polling day. The political maturity of the next government will also be defined by the conduct of the very election that brings it to power.