People in general are divided into two broad factions in respect of political inclination. From the middle path towards left are known as leftists meaning ‘Liberals’. Similarly, from middle towards right are known as rightists or ‘Conservatives’. More away a leftist’s position is from the mid path, the more ‘liberal’ he/she be considered or vice-versa. Similarly, more away a rightist’s position is from the mid path, the more ‘conservative’ he/she be considered or vice versa. Practice of multi-party democracy- a necessity for a republic
When parties join an alliance led by a party having relatively stronger political base there is a tendency that smaller ones gradually lose their own identity and become a part of the leading party
GM Quader
People in general are divided into two broad factions in respect of political inclination. From the middle path towards left are known as leftists meaning Liberals. Similarly, from middle towards right are known as rightists or Conservatives. More away a leftists position is from the mid path, the more liberal he/she be considered or vice-versa. Similarly, more away a rightists position is from the mid path, the more conservative he/she be considered or vice versa.
People at the extreme end of either left or right ideological preferences are considered Extremists or Radicals. Extremists sometimes use terrorism as a strategy of achieving their goals. Violent extremism is undesirable in practice of democracy.
In multi-party democracy, people having different ideological affinity cluster with citizens of similar mind set and form their own political parties with an objective of engaging in politics. Many political parties operate independently with varieties of ideologies and goals.
Republic is a country where every sort of people will have equal right over the state power. So, practice of multi-party democracy and thereby creating scope for citizens of all categories to participate in governance is an important pre-requisite in a Republic.
Election of representatives is the primary task for practice of democracy. Citizens will elect their representatives and elected representatives will run the affairs of the state as per desire and aspiration of people. That is democracy.
There are different ways of electing proper representatives; also exists quite a few types of governance system providing checks and balances to ensure running of state affairs by representatives as per expectations and intentions of citizens.
System of election known as plurality majority, where a candidate among others interested, having maximum support would become representative, is simplest. But, many shortcomings of the method have been revealed during practice. It is seen that candidate with marginal difference can win leaving behind a large portion of citizens (who voted for the defeated contestants) without representation. In the process, political parties with relatively lesser public support fail to elect their representatives in many cases and thereby lose scope to participate in state matters. Role of smaller parties gradually reduces in politics. At some point, smaller political parties can no longer sustain on their own alone and merge with other likeminded political entities. Thus election alliances are formed. Different alliances also tend to merge with each other for similar reasons resulting in formation of greater alliances. Ultimately, two great alliances survive each containing political entities of left lean (liberals) and right tilt (conservatives) politics.
When parties join an alliance led by a party having relatively stronger political base there is a tendency that smaller ones gradually loses their own identity and become a part of the leading party. Thus ultimately, broad based two party system one of liberals and the other consisting of conservatives become inevitable outcome of plurality majority election system.
India, UK, USA and Bangladesh may be considered examples of various phases of the above consequences. All these countries use plurality majority voting system in the national elections. India, UK and USA are having federal system with provincial/state and central governments. Bangladesh is a unitary government without decentralization. In India, different provinces have its own unique problem; some local political parties in those areas are having importance for that.
But two parties, Congress (representing liberals) and BJP (representing right wing conservatives) are predominant in national elections there.
In case of national election in UK, though there are few smaller parties two major parties, Labour (liberals) and Conservative (right wing) mostly contest for power. Politics is being dominated by two main stream political parties, Democrats (liberals) and Republicans (conservatives) in USA.
In Bangladesh, after passing various stages, politics has become confined now within two great alliances, Awami League (AL) led 14 party alliance or Mohajote (with Jatiyo Party) and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led 20 party alliances. AL led alliance has become the political platform for liberals and BNP led alliance has contained all conservatives.
It is observed that most of the smaller parties in both the alliances are increasingly using election symbol of the leading alliance member, thereby surrendering their own political identity. If the current trend continues, which will, in case election system remains same eventually politics of Bangladesh will be evolving around two main stream political parties.
It may be concluded that Plurality Majority voting system at present being used in Bangladesh is not helpful for practice of multi-party democracy. Existing system forces formation of alliance before election and ultimate merger of smaller parties to the alliance head.
In consideration of the same, most countries of Europe and many other countries throughout the globe have made major reforms or are preparing to do so in their election method. Proportional Representation Voting System of various types is being adopted extensively as alternative.
Bangladesh, being a republic should also consider doing the same in order not to discontinue practice of multi-party democracy.
The writer is aformer minister
