The BNP has just announced that on May 3rd, it will lead a protest march to the election commission to demand a that the voting results of the Bhola-3 elections be annulled. Further, the BNP will demand that the electoral commissioners resign.
I understand that all protests are extra-legal acts and– taken together–movements. But this strikes me as being a significant act, quite above and beyond the typical measure of a protest, any protest. This is a movement that contrary to official and public accounts, requires that an imperfectly democratic result be cancelled, simply because a small share of the ballot was found to be illegitimate. Under this rule every election since the history of the Republic should be over-turned.
This is a silly movement meant to gin up public sentiment against–and there is no doubt about this– a less than ideal sitting government. Nevertheless, as I have argued elsewhere this government is taking the problems and opportunities of governance seriously. After several, discrete, cycles of paralysis, the opposition should aboard, join the parliament and play politics. This game of condescension and utterly senile fatalism does not serve the Bangladeshi people well.
