Prof Syed Manzoorul Islam, retired professor of Dhaka University, who currently teaches at ULAB, shares his impressions about the election with The Daily Star's Aasha Mehreen Amin.

Former Election Commissioner Brigadier General (Retd) M Sakhawat Hossain talks to Shakhawat Liton of The Daily Star about the deployment of army personnel and the role they are expected to play during the election.

Sharmeen Murshid, Chief Executive Officer of the election observation group “Brotee”, talks to Shakhawat Liton of The Daily Star about the importance of election monitoring and recent developments ahead of the election.

Naomi Burke-Shyne, Executive Director of Harm Reduction International, and international NGO “dedicated to reducing the negative health, social and legal impacts of drug use and drug policy”, talks to The Daily Star's Moyukh Mahtab (over e-mail) about the global failure of wars on drugs, and how a health-based approach to drug policy could save lives and promote the well-being of citizens.

Stefania Maurizi is an investigative journalist working for the Italian daily La Repubblica. She has worked on all WikiLeaks releases of secret documents and partnered with Glenn Greenwald to reveal the Snowden Files about Italy. She has authored two books—Dossier WikiLeaks: Segreti Italiani and Una Bomba, Dieci Storie. In an exclusive (electronic) interview with Eresh Omar Jamal of The Daily Star, Maurizi talks about the continued arbitrary detention of Julian Assange, why powerful governments see WikiLeaks as an existential threat, and the implications for global press freedom if Assange is prosecuted for publishing secret government documents.

Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM), established by renowned educationist and philanthropist Khan Bahadur Ahsanullah, with the motto of providing humanitarian service, has come a long way since its inception 60 years ago.

Bangladesh's recent impetus on cracking down on drug abuse and trade has led to some divisive results—while there is no doubt that this is an issue that needs to be addressed, the approach taken by the authorities has been questioned.

Sultana Kamal, lawyer and human rights activist, member of CPD board of trustees, former Executive Director of Ain o Salish Kendra, and former advisor to the caretaker government of Bangladesh, talks to Eresh Omar Jamal of The Daily Star about the upcoming national elections and the state of human rights in Bangladesh.

Eminent thinker and writer Professor Serajul Islam Choudhury, in this interview with Badiuzzaman Bay of The Daily Star, outlines his views about the current state of leftist politics, the upcoming election, and the future of politics and youth leadership in Bangladesh.

On the occasion of the National Road Safety Day today, noted filmmaker Catherine Masud talks to Nahela Nowshin of The Daily Star about her own journey of navigating the justice system, what the recent student-led road safety movement has achieved, and the shortcomings of the recently passed Road Transport Act 2018.

Ayesha Khanam, president of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, talks to Naznin Tithi of The Daily Star about the importance of increasing the number of reserved seats for women in parliament and holding direct elections for those seats.

How far do you think Bangladesh has progressed in terms of protecting its Intellectual Property (IP) rights? Why is it important for a country?

Shojag is working to end gender-based violence in our garments industry. It is a coalition of five organisations—Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), the Human Rights and legal Aid Services (HRLS) Programme of BRAC,

Iqbal Habib, Member Secretary, Urbanisation & Governance Programme, Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa), talks to Naznin Tithi of The Daily Star about why lack of coordination among the agencies concerned is the main barrier to solving Dhaka's waterlogging problem and how this issue should be addressed.

From the human rights perspective, the treatment received by thousands of Bangladeshi female workers at the hands of their employers constitutes a grave violation of their rights. Can a human being work for 17–18 hours tirelessly without any day-off—that too at very low wages?

For the last 10 years, the budgetary allocation for health has been constantly around five percent of the total budget. If at least 3 percent of the GDP could be spent on health, it could have a major impact. Generally, the government provides allocation to public hospitals based on the number of beds. The amount allocated for each bed is very small. But as the number of people seeking treatment is much higher than the number of beds available, these extra people do not get any portion of the budgetary allocation.

CR Abrar, Professor of International Relations at the University of Dhaka, talks to Eresh Omar Jamal about Myanmar's genocidal campaign against the Rohingyas and the international community's unfortunate but overwhelming silence in response.

Unicef and other organisations have been advocating for a long time that this allocation should be at least 20 percent of the total. What are your thoughts on this year's proposed allocation? I think it's a milestone moment for Bangladesh. Bangladesh is on the path of transition to a developing country. Now, alongside rapid economic development, inequality can also grow. But there are also more resources available, so the economic and political choices that are made today will determine the future.

The idea of the universal pension scheme is new, but it's just a good idea. With our bureaucratic inefficiency, it's highly unlikely that we would be able to make headway in this regard in the near future.

The size of our budget is continually expanding. So, on the face of it, we will see that the allocation for education has increased. But if we take a closer look, we will see that as a percentage of the total budget, the allocation has actually decreased. Even in the revised budget of the last fiscal year, the education budget was over 12 percent of the total. Now in 2018-19, even before the revision—budget allocation usually decreases after revision—the allocation has been reduced to 11.41 percent. This is disappointing.