Thursday, January 11, 2007
Bangladesh
From a BBC story on the state of emergency in Bangladesh:
India, in that sense, is lucky to have had Seshan and now have the independent Election Commission. How did India manage to get EC? I think there is a clause in the Constitution or something like that...
Since 1996, Bangladesh's constitution has required the elected government to hand over power to a neutral, non-partisan interim administration on the completion of its five-year term. This was an extraordinary admission by politicians that they could not be trusted to hold free and fair polls.
The system worked. Government headed by retired chief justices in 1996 and 2001 produced two of the cleanest elections in the country's history. Turnout exceeding 75% showed the faith voters had in the fairness of polls held under caretaker governments.
India, in that sense, is lucky to have had Seshan and now have the independent Election Commission. How did India manage to get EC? I think there is a clause in the Constitution or something like that...
Labels: politics
