News Desk
Rtnn: Bangladesh's security actors should cease surveillance and intimidation of journalists and media outlets and protect space for critical reporting during elections, the joint technical assessment mission of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and International Republican Institute (IRI) recommended in its final report on the 7 January Jatiya Sangsad polls.

Besides, the government should review the Cyber Security Act to ensure that it is in line with international standards to protect the information environment during elections,  the NDI-IRI joint technical mission (TAM) said in the report published yesterday (16 March).

The TAM also called on the government to implement CSA in a manner that addresses online harms and preserves freedom of speech, and iteratively seeks and responds to feedback from civil society, citizens, and other stakeholders on the law's implementation and amendment.

 It also called on social media companies to expand their internal capacity to monitor and regulate online behaviour in Bangladesh, prioritising localised expertise across language and political contexts. 

The final TAM report stated that the quality of Bangladesh's 2024 Jatiya Sangsad election was undermined by incidents of state, ruling party, and opposition violence, according to the final report.

The pre-election environment characterised by increased political polarisation, violence among political actors, contracting civic space, and worsening freedoms of expression and association also resulted in the decreased quality of the elections, it added.

However, it noted that the 2024 election period, including the campaign period, election day and the immediate aftermath, had less physical and online violence compared to previous election cycles, primarily due to the absence of nationwide partisan competition and the state's increased focus on election security

The joint NDI-IRI team was deployed to Bangladesh to monitor potential electoral violence conditions before, during, and after the 7 January parliamentary elections.

Findings

In its final report, published on the IRI's website, the mission said, "During the election period, the Bangladesh government took several actions to promote security, including increasing the budget for election security, deploying a larger number of security personnel for a longer period of time, and forming ad hoc coordination units to oversee the security response.

"Still, many stakeholders made credible accusations that state security services and other government institutions at times unevenly enforced election rules to favour the ruling Awami League (AL).

The scale of the government's efforts to arrest opposition members and restrict or disrupt opposition political activities was not satisfactorily justified and generated a widespread perception of politicised law enforcement during the election period."

It also said election violence by non-state actors took two primary forms: the first between competing candidates and supporters and the second driven by the opposition's boycott effort. 

The report also said, "Marginalised groups, specifically women and Hindus, also experienced electoral violence."

Citing available reporting and stakeholder feedback, the joint NDI-IRI mission said there was an indication that "election violence targeting women was lower than in past elections, but serious challenges remained."

The mission also found that Bangladesh's legal framework fails to fully address gender-based violence, especially in the context of elections.

In this election cycle, female candidates told the TAM that they were subject to insults and threats in public and online, particularly from male opponents and their followers, and said that state officials did not respond to their complaints. 

Bangladesh's Hindu minority also faced significant election violence. While available reporting and stakeholder feedback indicate that election violence targeting religious minorities was lower than in past elections, Hindus specifically still faced notable intimidation and violence during the campaign.

Lastly, the report stated that the information environment during the election period saw diverging trends.

Prominent newspapers and social media platforms included some space for critical statements and reporting on the ruling party and state institutions.

"However, stakeholders also noted that fear of government retaliation led to self censorship in the media. Interlocutors often cited the 2018 Digital Security Act and its replacement, the Cyber Security Act, passed in 2023, in driving self censorship, despite the government's assurances of reform.

"Journalists also faced election violence from the ruling party and opposition during campaign events and protests."

Regarding the online information environment, the TAM found that violent rhetoric on social media persisted during the election.

The TAM conducted a limited social media analysis of offensive political terms

on Facebook during the immediate pre-and post election period.

"The TAM found that offensive discourse came from both political sides, but the AL and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina were more often the targets of offensive rhetoric, while the BNP was more often the perpetrator.

"The generalisability of the findings was limited by the small set of offensive terms and posts analysed, but the TAM research indicates that both sides contributed to Bangladesh's caustic social media environment during the election," it said.  

Manpreet Singh Anand, NDI's regional director for the Asia-Pacific, said, "This report provides a valuable roadmap for more peaceful elections in Bangladesh's future. Leaders across the sociopolitical spectrum — including political parties, the government, and civil society – have a responsibility to reform the rules, practices, and norms of electoral politics toward nonviolence.

Johanna Kao, IRI's senior director for the Asia-Pacific Division, said, "Election violence is a key deterrent of citizen participation. For Bangladesh's elections to be fully inclusive and participatory, all sides need to prioritise nonviolent politics."

During its stay in Bangladesh, the mission's five accredited long-term analysts met with election and government officials, security actors, political party leaders from across the political spectrum, journalists, civil society organisations including those focusing on youth, women, persons with disabilities, and religious minorities, as well as with accredited international observer missions.

The mission follows a joint pre-election assessment mission (PEAM) that NDI and IRI conducted on 8-11 October 2023.

IRI and NDI are nonpartisan, nongovernmental organisations that support and strengthen democratic institutions and practices worldwide. The Institutes have collectively observed more than 200 elections in more than 50 countries over the last 30 years.

Recommendations

While the 2024 electoral process saw less violence than the previous elections, significant gaps and challenges remained, the NDI-IRI team said.

It recommended several recommendations to mitigate and combat violence in future elections.

Regarding state institutions, the joint mission recommended that parliament, the EC, and other relevant governmental actors amend the legal framework to explicitly incorporate impartiality and neutrality requirements for election officers, including law enforcement, involved in election administration.

It also recommended the EC to establish a dedicated code of conduct for security personnel assigned to election duty and provide greater training and oversight to ensure nonpartisan provision of election security.

It asked government departments concerned to create and empower an independent oversight mechanism to efficiently monitor the work of the police and systematically address complaints related to the conduct and behaviour of police personnel, particularly during election periods.

The EC should review existing collaboration mechanisms with the security sector and MoHA in order to provide clear rules of engagement during elections that increase transparency, cohesion, and standardisation.

To prevent physical violence during elections, the NDI-IRI team suggested that the EC and other relevant governmental actors enforce existing laws to deter violence against voters and investigate and prosecute individuals implicated in intimidation, threats, and other forms of violence against voters.

Besides, security actors, the judiciary, and other relevant non-state actors should facilitate an independent and thorough investigation into election violence incidents, hold individuals responsible for acts of violence accountable through legal proceedings, promote reconciliation and dialogue among political factions and encourage political leaders to condemn and discourage post-election violence.

To protect marginalised groups,  security actors and the judiciary should conduct

timely and thorough investigations of all cases of violence reported against women and other marginalised groups and promptly address them, said NDI and IRI.

Furthermore, the government should introduce and strengthen legal codes to ensure the protection of women's rights in order to create a more inclusive, safe, and enabling environment for their political participation.

Regarding information environment and violence, the TAM recommended that the EC undertakes systematic monitoring of election-related harmful speech and violent

rhetoric, including threats of violence against women and other marginalised groups online, in traditional and social media outlets and sanction perpetrators in a uniform manner for violations of election laws and codes of conduct.