EXPERIMENTS WITH CARETAKER

The successful conclusion of elections in Bangladesh on 12 June can be credited largely to a constitutional innovation—the provision included by the 13th constitutional amendment earlier this year which requires all general elections henceforth to be conducted under a caretaker government. Ironically, that amendment itself was adopted by a Parliament which had little or no legitimacy, comprised as it was entirely of members of Begum Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party that had been elected in the 15 February polls boycotted by all other parties.

Whatever the pedigree of the amendment, the idea was put to the test on 12 June and it passed with full marks. Thus, the caretaker-government-during-elections concept becomes something that neighbouring countries too might study for its relevance.

The main reason the caretaker government worked was that the Chief Advisor and other Advisors (as they are called) were competent individuals, former justices, bureaucrats and technocrats with unimpeachable references. As Chief Advisor (really the Prime Minister), former Chief Justice Mohammad Habibur Rahman was scrupulously fair in running the government.

Justice Rahman's most important task, the raison d'etre of the 13th amendment, was to ensure free and fair elections, and so he took extra special care in selecting the Election Commission team, headed by former bureaucrat Md Abu Hena. And because of the transparent neutrality of the "non-party" caretaker government, both the major political parties found it difficult to cry foul.

Will the caretaker government system work for any of the other regional countries? It is difficult to say. It has worked in Bangladesh this once, and might again, but the fortuitous circumstances that throw up individuals who are both competent and neutral might not always come together. Indeed, even in Bangladesh, the expectation is that constitutionally mandated caretakers are a temporary measure and that the country should ultimately go back to the tried and tested system where the government in power also runs the elections.

The alternative, of course, is to have a consensual and depoliticised process for choosing the election commissioners. However, this is easier said than done, for even with the strongest of guarantees, the election commission cannot be immune from the pressures of a government that wants to have its way. Hence, in the extreme situation that Bangladesh was faced with a few months back, the experiment was in ensuring the neutrality of the very government that appoints the election commission.

The Bangladesh experiment with a custodian government, thus, begins to look more attractive for those countries where 1) party polarisation is so extreme that there is no chance that the losing party will willingly sit in opposition, and 2) where neutrality of the election commission—or the ability of the commission to enforce its neutrality—is in serious doubt.

The Thirteenth Amendment was the end result of two years of acrimony between Bangladesh´s two powerful parties, the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. As a senior member of the Awami League told the press, the caretaker concept was intended not only for transferring power, but for strengthening the democratic process as a whole. "With a view to developing a democratic culture, which was never practised in the country, we want to continue this process for several terms more," he said.

Indeed, it would seem wise to maintain the present innovation for some time to come. But the fact remains that the caretaker system brings a hiatus, albeit for a few weeks, in the normal running of government, of which holding elections is but one activity. This break in continuity cannot be dismissed lightly. Ultimately, as more sober politics begins to be practised,, there has to be a return to the handed-down system of an elected party running a country till it is ready for the handover to whoever wins next.

And so, Bangladesh, too, would be well advised to move towards developing a political culture which does away with the very need to have a caretaker. In the meantime, the new Awami League government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed must immedi¬ately tackle the anomaly that exists in the Thirteenth Amendment—the provision which entrusts the Chief Advisor the task of conducting elections and the routine functions of government, while the control of the armed forces rests entirely with the President. This incongruous provision could be taken advan¬tage of by a President bent on mischief. For, under the amendment, the President remains a party-appointed constitutional head of a non-party caretaker government.