The Election Commission (EC) has declared the schedule of the eleventh national elections—the election will hopefully be held on December 30, 2018. The ruling Awami League has drafted its manifesto with a “forward-looking vision”, which is to be unveiled by December 15.

In our upcoming parliamentary election on December 30, 2018 more women MP aspirants have shown an interest to take on a legislative role than ever before (more than 50 from each alliance).

Elections in a democratic system are vital and in order for the elections to be fair, it is important to examine whether the voters are

The Election Commission (EC) had announced the schedule for the 11th parliamentary election on November 8, 2018 and shifted the poll date from December 23 to December 30, 2018 as the opposition BNP and the newly formed alliance Jatiya Oikyafront decided to hold a couple of rounds of dialogue with the government. Most of the important demands of Oikyafront remain unfulfilled.

On October 28, Khaleda Zia was convicted and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.

I have been engaged in carrying out research on representation and MPs' work with citizens in their constituencies since the 90s. This has led me to write this piece on understanding whether our MPs' roles and responsibilities are truly rooted in constituency service or cultural and societal aspects.

Surprising as it may seem to many, President Abdul Hamid has legal authority to play a significant role in ensuring that the next parliamentary election is held in a free and fair manner.

The atmosphere filled with outrage and calls for justice for the Rohingya people a year ago seems to have largely subsided.

The root of the present crisis over the parliamentary polls lies in the Supreme Court's verdict on the 13th constitutional amendment case which declared the election-time non-partisan caretaker government system unconstitutional. And the solution to the crisis, to a large extent, also lies in the SC verdict.

So far, ten parliamentary elections were held in Bangladesh, of which three—the 1988 election during the Ershad regime, the February 15, 1996 election under the BNP government, and the January 5, 2014 election under the Awami League-led Grand Alliance government—were one-sided.

Rumour is the new buzzword in Bangladesh's political lingo after it was thrust back into the limelight in October when students launched a nationwide movement for road safety. Since then, the government has launched a crusade against rumours, going to great lengths to monitor and suppress them.

Authoritarian governments should consider holding fair elections.” This intriguing comment by Mike Touchton, a professor of political science at Boise State University of Idaho in USA, is certainly worth pondering about. But why should such governments consider doing such a thing? “It just might invite more prosperity,” he explains in an article on the subject.

After much deliberation, the government finally allowed the Oikyafront, the opposition alliance, to organise rallies in both Sylhet and Chittagong.

The civil service bill placed in parliament on Sunday with a provision to shield government employees from arrest by police in cases filed against them on charges of criminal offences committed in connection with their duties, raises question if political memories are really wafer thin.

On September 19, 2018, over the vehement objections of civil society and media representatives, the Parliament passed the Digital Security Act, 2018. The concern is that it is a draconian law which will impede freedom of expression, including individual and media freedom.

On July 30, in a massive official drive in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam to segregate “the illegal infiltrators” from legal citizens, a list depriving over four million people of the right to live in the country was made public.

This is a very interesting year for democratic governance in Bangladesh. The national parliamentary elections will be held at the end of 2018. The last national elections, in 2014, was mired in violence and was controversial in many sense.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid again urges the students to back to classes.

The year 2018 is one of elections. A total of five city corporation elections are to be held this year, of which elections in Khulna and Gazipur have already been held.

Judging from the May 15 election in Khulna, and the Gazipur city corporation election on June 26, five distinct features of a controlled election have emerged.