The role of caretaker government in the democratic process of Bangladesh (1991-2006)

Abstract

In Bangladesh, holding free and fair election has always been a subject of controversy. Free and fair election is one of the main vehicles of democracy. But from the very beginning of the country elections have been discredited with manifold malpractices such as proxy votes, snatching of ballot boxes, involvement of money and muscle power, intimidating the minority voters, and use of governments facilities by ruling party candidates during the election campaign. In these circumstances, the demand of caretaker government was the only way out to improve this situation. Caretaker government system, unique in nature, was introduced mainly to address this issue as a backdrop of mass upsurge of 1990 that ended the long years of military and semi-military dictatorial rule in Bangladesh. Caretaker government conducted the parliamentary elections of 1990, 1996, 2001 and 2008 successfully. So it is necessary to know the relationship between democracy and caretaker government during (1991-2006). The study aims to understand the norms and values of the democratic process of Bangladesh along with caretaker government from 1991 to 2006. The electoral history of Bangladesh, electoral democracy, formation of caretaker government, performance of caretaker government, comparative analysis of the caretaker government, democracy and evolution of the caretaker government also discusses the study. However, some people demand to abolish the caretaker system and some people demand to allow this system for a certain period of time to let the democracy to be matured. This study is the outcome of an in-depth research to examine the election under the caretaker government from 1991 to 2006. The study tries to explain the differences of the national elections while the elections under political government and caretaker government in details. So, the political system of Bangladesh demands to know the role of the caretaker government in the democratic process of Bangladesh during the time of 1991 to 2006.