Bangladesh Election Results 2008

Its a landslide victory for Awami League and the grand alliance.

Image courtesy The New Age.

Fuzzy Math / শুভঙ্করের ফাঁকি

“It’s unbelievable that nearly 90 percent votes were cast in Monday’s polls, and that means a voter needed only 55 seconds to cast ballot.” - BNP office secretary Rizvi Ahmed

Recently I was listening to a conversation that went something like this:

1. There are 35,000 polling stations in Bangladesh
2. There are 81 million voters, 87% of which, or a total of 70 million votes were cast
3. The polling stations were open for 8 hours = 480 minutes
(all numbers are approximate)

Hence, there were an average of 2000 votes (70 million / 35000) cast per polling center in 480 minutes,
which means each voter had (480 x 60) /2000 = 14 seconds per vote.

So the theory being proposed was: massive fraud and ballot-box stuffing, since 14 seconds to cast each vote is absurd.

Alas, the calculations are correct, but the data is wrong, because one polling center does not equate to only one polling booth. According to the Election Commission, there were 177107 polling booths, and that changes the calculation to:

Average votes cast per polling booth = 70 million / 177101 = 395 votes. Time to cast each vote = (480 x 60) / 395 = 72 seconds

72 seconds is much better than 14 seconds or 55 seconds per vote, right?

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First 30 Days Plan for our next Prime Minister

To form a cabinet will be public’s first litmus test for Sheikh Hasina. To the public, it will be the very morning that will show them the days of next five years. The cabinet has to be a discreet blend of old and young, experience and commitment, patriotism and skill. Politicians, bureaucrats, subject experts and technocrats with clear numeric superiority of elected representatives will create the dynamics of this team for change.

Elected party politicians and patriotic alliance partners should be the first choice to fill vital portfolios like Home, Foreign, Finance, Defense, Industry, Information, Education, Health, Energy, Agriculture, Food etc. Partners of strategic alliance having questionable and vacillating political past should be kept out of the core and may be appointed on less vital portfolios. Ministries like Energy, Environment, Minerals, and Human Rights may go to technocrats and subject experts with proven loyalty to party.

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Indo-Bangla Relation in a Critical Phase

Photo:Maitreyee Express,Dhaka-Calcutta train, by Subir Bhaumik.
Awami League led Grand Alliance has won the parliamentary election in Bangladesh in 2008 with a landslide (¾th) majority. The party will soon form a new government which will have to shoulder massive responsibility of rebuilding the national economy. They are coming to power at an stage when the world economy is suffering from serious recession. The unpredicted energy crisis of recent time, ongoing food crisis and global warming are also major challenges they have to confront.

Bangladesh is surrounded by India, a large neighbor from almost three sides - East, West and North. All rivers flowing through Bangladesh originate from India. In 1971 India provided shelter to about 10 millions refugees; it trained our liberation force, provided arms and also fought side by side with our liberation force to win independence against Pakistani occupation force. But unfortunately over the years the relation between two neighborly nations grew increasingly bitter. Many major issues have reached the stages of conflict. A small neighbor of a huge population and economy suffers a great deal due to continued disputes over critical issues.

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Democracy Returns To Bangladesh

Photo: Munem Wasif, DRIK News.

A Muslim majority country of over 150 million people just held a high-turnout peaceful democratic election. The secular Awami League won a landslide victory in Bangladesh’s parliamentary elections and is poised to send back to power Sheikh Hasina - one of two women who have led Bangladesh in the past - as the country’s Prime Minister. In the process, the Bangladeshi voters sent the Islamist political party, Jamaat-e-Islami, into political oblivion. The Jamaat secured 2 seats in the 300 seat parliament while the Awami League secured 230 seats. This election was a stunning repudiation of military rule and of the Islamists in a country that has suffered from both. However, as democracy triumphed in Bangladesh, the world barely took notice.
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Landslide Is Not A Mandate For One-party Anarchy

Awami League (AL) supporters celebrate after election results have been opened unofficially. Grand alliance led by AL acquires two third majority while other parties and alliances have obtained only few seats. by: A H Arif, DRIK News

Decades ago, Sylhet municipality (before it became a city corporation) had an admittedly crazy candidate for the position of chairman: A Mr. Saiful. The whole town knew he had mental problems, and he openly discussed it. His campaigning was novel, too: he declared, in open meetings, that he was going to take a total of one crore (10 million) taka in bribes, after which he will do real work.

Would you be surprised to hear that Mr. Saiful, a crazy person with a declared manifesto of taking bribes, defeated major party (AL, BNP, JP) candidates and was elected? The heavily favored AL candidate and the challenger BNP candidate both lost despite rigging the vote in many polling centers.

People were so disgusted, they voted Saiful (also known as Chokka Saiful) as the Chairman.
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Victory is a political fiction