Published: 12:12 AM, 19 April 2026
2014 Elections: Democracy's Death Knell
Members of the election commission remove election materials after hearing news of a possible attack on polling booths by protesters in Bogura on 5 January 2014. -Reuters
The 2014 elections which were held on 5 January actually did far-reaching damages to the democratic institutions in Bangladesh and the advancement of democratic circumference in the country was crippled by means of those heavily manipulated and rigged polls. In order to safeguard Bangladesh's democracy in days to come from similar manmade disasters, strong measures and legal foundations are required right now so that elections can't be mishandled by vested quarters any further.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) was instigated by the government high-ups during 2014 to frame three times former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia and her son Tarique Rahman in concocted cases. All opposition parties declined the 2014 elections though Jatiya Party at the eleventh hour consented to join the polls reportedly coming under compulsion from intelligence forces.
The top articulators of the 2014 elections include the then Chief of Army Staff General (Retd) Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan who was Quarter Master General (QMG) when Begum Khaleda Zia's Dhaka Cantonment residence was demolished in 2010. Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad was the Chief Election Commissioner during the contrived 2014 elections. Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Haque was the top cop at that time. Mohammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan was Cabinet Secretary when the elections in 2014 were held. Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Principal Secretary during that time was Abdus Sobhan Sikder.
State machineries were brazenly abused and engineered to hold the scurrilous 2014 polls. Violence broke out all over Bangladesh as a result of people's enormous refusal to cast their ballots in these fabricated elections. The intelligence chiefs who were in charge of the country's most influential espionage agencies can't avoid liability either. Most of the civil society members back then preferred to keep quiet excluding a few exceptions. Human rights defenders have said that a great deal of political opponents were subjected to enforced disappearances from June 2013 till January 2014 and theblack episode of enforced disappearances continued in the following years too.
Hundreds of people were killed and injured in violent attacks surrounding the controversial elections, according to Bangladeshi human rights organizations. "These were the bloodiest elections since independence, and unless concrete steps are taken to address what happened, the situation in Bangladesh is likely to worsen," said Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch (HRW) Asia Director. "It is important that the leaders of the main political parties not only make public statements denouncing this senseless violence, but also take measures to censure party members found responsible for the violence" Brad Adams further said.
The acrimoniously defiled elections of 2014 turned out to be the most harmful blow to Bangladesh's democracy. Due to abnormally high rigging and anarchy in the 2014 polls, the elections in 2018 and 2024 were transfixed with mammoth controversies and allegations. All these toxic circumstances led to the July Uprising in 2024 which toppled former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her ruling party Awami League was overthrown on 5 August 2024. A few months later Awami League was banned from all sorts of political programs.
The evil assemblages who were at the back of the 2014 electoral theatrics, the same chaps for the most part were responsible for the traumatic political disaster in Bangladesh known as 1/11 which aimed at terminating Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina from the country's politics forever.
Badiul Alam Majumder, General Secretary of Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (SHUJAN) said that democracy in a country can never gain a strong foundation if elections are rigged. He laid emphasis on the prevalence of independent, courageous and unbiased election officials for conducting polls smoothly without fears or favours.
Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) said that rule of law, accountability and good governance cannot be established in absence of democracy. He urged all political parties to abstain from influencing administrative units, law and order forces and attempting to impose loyalty on the Election Commission.
Professor Anu Muhammad, Jahangirnagar University said that all the allegations about election rigging during the overthrown government's ruling tenure should be investigated and all the officials responsible for devastating Bangladesh's democratic ambience should be subjected to penalties, Anu Muhammad added.
>>Shameem Ahmed, AA
