Washington, February 6: Bangladesh is set to hold elections soon, but the situation in the country is alarming. An American scholar has stated that the upcoming national elections in Bangladesh will not be “free or fair.” He warned that excluding major political parties has already undermined the democratic significance of the electoral process.
Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, expressed his concerns about the credibility of the vote, stating, “There will be no free and fair elections in Bangladesh at all.”
Rubin emphasized that genuine elections require open competition. He noted, “The only way to conduct free and fair elections in Bangladesh is to have competition among mainstream political parties, which enjoy the support of most Bangladeshis.”
He criticized attempts to suppress the Awami League, suggesting that they reflect political fear rather than democratic principles. Rubin remarked, “The fact that Muhammad Yunus (chief advisor) and Jamaat-e-Islami want to ban the Awami League only indicates that the Awami League would win a truly free and fair election.”
Previously, during a conference organized by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue on the Bangladeshi elections, Rubin warned that Bangladesh could become a significant foreign policy crisis for the United States.
He described the crisis in Bangladesh as resembling a slow-motion train wreck. Rubin believes that Washington has failed to curb the violent incidents occurring under the patronage of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who assumed office as chief advisor on August 8, 2024.
Challenging prevailing narratives about political unrest in Bangladesh in mid-2024, he stated, “What we know now is that the protests we have seen were not spontaneous.”
He compared elections held under such conditions to those in authoritarian systems. Rubin stated, “If you hold elections… when a party like the Awami League is banned, the elections you are talking about resemble those we have seen in the former Soviet Union or the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Rubin also accused external interference, claiming that Pakistan views Bangladesh as “East Pakistan” and alleging that Pakistani officials have funded a student-led political party linked to Jamaat-e-Islami. He asserted that evidence of such funding is “solid,” although it has not been widely reported.
He warned that diplomatic isolation exacerbates poor decision-making. Rubin said, “It is genuinely difficult for diplomats to step outside their embassies and see the realities of the societies they report on.” He argued that reliance on a limited contact network distorts American assessments.
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