SOG Reports Constituted an Inquiry Into the Institutions and Politics of Bangladesh

The State of Governance Bangladesh 2013 Democracy Party Politics VOICEDEMOCRACY VIOLENCE POLITICSPOWERPEOPLE PARTYARCHY INFLUENCE PARTY FINANCING CONSTITUTION NOMINATION VOICE CONTROL REPRESENTATION COMMITTEE FUNCTIONING INTERESTS BRAC Institute of Governance and Development BRAC University The State of Governance Bangladesh 2013 Democracy Party Politics INTERESTS BRAC Institute of Governance and Development BRAC University The State of Governance Bangladesh 2013 Democracy, Party, Politics BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) BRAC University Dhaka, Bangladesh Copyright ©August 2014 ISBN: 978-984-33-8064-7 Recommended Citation BIGD, 2014. The State of Governance Bangladesh 2013: Democracy, party, politics. BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, BRAC University, Dhaka. Production and copy editing Ramizah Ahmed, Ekram Hossain, Kazi Masel Ullah Cover: Amal Das Layout and Production: Color Line, Ga- 188/2, Mohakhali, Dhaka – 1212, Bangladesh Price: BDT 700 USD 15 Acknowledgements BIGD gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the following individuals who have been interviewed in the process of this research. The research team takes full responsibility for the contents of this report. Professor Rounaq Jahan, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Dr. Akbar Ali Khan, Former Advisor, Caretaker Government of Bangladesh. Professor Ali Riaz, Illinois State University, USA. Professor Ataur Rahman, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Professor Nizam Ahmed, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. Professor Al-Masud Hasanuzzaman, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh. Mr. Haidar Akbar Khan Rono, Presidium Member, Communist Party of Bangladesh. Dr. Badiul Alam Majumder, Convener, Shushasoner Jonno Nagorik (Sujon). Brig. Gen. Sakhawat Hossain, Former Election Commissioner, Election Commission Bangladesh. Ms. Ayesha Khanam, Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Khalequzzaman, General Secretary, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Daal. Mahmudur Rahman Manna, Convener, Nagorik Andolon, Bangladesh. Ms. Sharmeen Murshid, Chief Executive Officer, BROTEE, Bangladesh. Ms. Tarana Halim, Member of Parliament, House of the Nation, Bangladesh. Ms. Rasehda Begum Hira, Former Member of Parliament, House of the Nation, Bangladesh. Abdul Alim, Director, Election Working Group, Bangladesh. Sakhawat Liton, Senior Reporter, The Daily Star, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Shahzada Akram, Senior Program Manager, Research and Policy, Transparency International Bangladersh. Mohammad Hatem, 1st Vice-president, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers & Exporters Association. Mr. Muhammad Amirul Haq, Advocate, Bangladesh Supreme Court Mr. Shohal Rana Akanda, Advocate, Judge Court, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Contributors Overall Supervision : Sultan Hafeez Rahman Research Coordinator : Minhaj Mahmud Chapter Authors: Chapter 1 Introduction Sultan Hafeez Rahman Chapter 2 Partyarchy and political Mirza Hassan, M. Shahidul Islam and underdevelopment Sultan Mohammed Zakaria Chapter 3 Inside political parties: scruples Md. Harun-Or-Rashid, Niaz Ahmed Khan, and practice Sadiat Mannan and Jens Stanislawski Chapter 4 Political violence in Bangladesh: Syeda Salina Aziz, Rubayet Hamid district level evidence for 2008-13 and Farhana Razzaque Chapter 5 Politicians in the parliament Ashikur Rahman and Sultan Mohammed Zakaria Chapter 6 Inclusive democracy: engendering Marufa Akter and Sohela Nazneen political parties Chapter 7 Political party finances: 'norms Kazi Niaz Ahmed, Faiz Ahmed Chowdhury and practices' and M. Shahidul Islam Chapter 8 Conclusion Minhaj Mahmud and Sultan Hafeez Rahman Reviewers Tofail Ahmed, Kazi Iqbal, Minhaj Mahmud, Sohela Nazneen, Ashikur Rahman, Sultan Hafeez Rahman Language Editor Sadaf Saaz Siddiqi Contents List of Tables, Maps and Boxes viii List of Figures ix List of Acronyms xi List of Glossary xii Preface xiii Executive Summary xv Chapter 1: Introduction 01 1.1 Preliminaries 01 1.2 Democracy in crisis? 02 1.3 The Political Parties 04 Chapter 2: Partyarchy and Political Underdevelopment 07 2.1. Introduction 07 2.2. A brief overview of partyarchal control over the state and civil society 08 2.3. Methodology and Data 09 2.4. Impersonal institution, monopoly over legitimate use of violence and impact on state building: The case of police 11 2.4.1 Failure of the state to be impersonal 12 2.4.2 Compromise of state's monopoly on legitimate violence 14 2.4.3 Police reforms: Is there any way out? 15 2.5 Partyarchal influence over civil society, and the rule of law 16 2.5.1 The process of partyarchal capture 18 2.5.2 Implication of partyarchal control of BSCBA on the rule of law 19 2.6 Partyarchy and democratic accountability at the local level 20 2.6.1 Deliberative space created by the UP Act of 2009 20 2.6.2 Partyarchal capture of UP committee system 21 2.7. Concluding observations 22 Chapter 3: Inside Political Parties: Scruples and Practices 25 3.1 Introduction 25 3. 2 Intra-party democracy 26 3.2.1 Concepts and framework for investigation 26 3.3 The scruples: An anatomy of the party constitutions 26 3.3.1 Participation 26 3.3.2 Representation 27 3.3.3 Responsiveness 27 3.3.4 Competition 28 3.3.5 Transparency 31 v 3.4 The practice of democracy within the parties: views from the field 32 3.4.1 Participation 33 3.4.2 Representation 34 3.4.3. Competition 34 3.4.4 Responsiveness 37 3.4.5 Transparency 38 3.5 'Party democracy index' (PDI) 39 3.6 Concluding observations 41 Chapter 4 Political Violence in Bangladesh: District Level Evidence for 2008-2013 43 4.1 Introduction 43 4.2 Political violence in the context of Bangladesh 44 4.3 Data and method 45 4.4 Political violence in Bangladesh (2008-13): Trends, patterns, severity and regional distribution 45 4.4.1 Trend of violence 45 4.4. 2 Severity of political violence 49 4.4.3 Regional distribution of violence 50 4.4.4 Reasons of political violence 54 4.4.5 Explaining political violence in districts 56 4.5 Concluding observations 57 Chapter 5: Politicians in the Parliament 59 5.1. Introduction 59 5.2. Data and methodology 60 5.2.1. Measuring legislative performance 61 5.3. Parliamentarians' characteristics 62 5.3.1. Participation of female politicians 64 5.3.2. Participation of dynastic politicians 64 5.3.3. Participation of businessmen in politics 65 5.3.4. Participation of veteran politicians 66 5.3.5. Participation of politicians facing legal charges 67 5.3.6. Participation of educated political leaders 68 5.3.7. Participation of lawyers and Ex-Military personnel 68 5.4. Do Leader traits matter? 70 5.5. Concluding observations 77 Chapter 6: Inclusive Democracy: Engendering Political Parties 79 6.1 Introduction 79 6.2 Women in politics: the Bangladesh context 80 6.3 Women's presence in political party structures and decision-making bodies 82 vi 6.4 Women's pathways of political power 84 6.5 Political party position on women's political empowerment 87 6.6 Concluding observations 90 Chapter 7: Political Party Finances: 'Norms and Practices' 93 7.1. Introduction 93 7.2. Study design and methodology 94 7.3. Findings and analysis 95 7.3.1 Sources of party income 95 7.3.2 Areas of political parties' expenditures 98 7.3.3 Electoral funding 98 7.3.4 Transparency and accountability mechanisms 101 7.3.5 Business-politics nexus 104 7.4. Concluding observations 106 Chapter 8: Conclusion 109 References 113 Annex 1 121 Annex 2 133 Annex 3 137 Annex 4 139 vii List of Tables, Maps and Boxes List of Tables Table 3.1 Measuring intra party democracy in AL's and BNP's constitutions 32 Table 4.1 Violence in different regimes for non-election years 46 Table 4.2 Patterns of violence by year 47 Table 4.3 Casualties reported in the period of 2008 -12 & 2013 49 Table 4.4 Major causes of violence in 2008-12 (by intra and inter parties) 55 Table 4.5 Findings 56 Table 5.1 Composition of the national parliament 63 Table 5.2 Women in Bangladesh parliament 64 Table 5.3 Performance of parliamentarians (9th Parliament) 71 Table 5.4 Performance of parliamentarians (8th Parliament) 73 Table 5.5 Performance of parliamentarians: Budget Speech Participation 74 Table 5.6 Performance of parliamentarians: Standing Committee Participation 76 Table 6.1 List of women members in the party hierarchy of five major political parties in Bangladesh (2014) 82 Table 6.2 Number of women candidates in different parliamentary elections 86 Table 7.1 Income and expenditure statements of AL and BNP submitted to the EC for the Year 2012 (in taka crore) 97 Table 1-1 Constitutional review 122 Table 1-2 Correlation between AL and BNP Transparency Indices (party office) 127 Table 1-3 Correlation between AL and BNP Transparency Indices (journalists) 127 Table 1-4 Party democracy indices for AL by district 130 Table 1-5 Party democracy indices for BNP by district 131 Table 2-1 Top ranked violent districts 133 Table 2-2 List of variables used in the regression analysis 133 Table 3-1 Political parties in the 9th national parliament and the family connection of their chairpersons 137 Table 3-2 Description of families producing three generations of leaders 138 Table 4-1 Women in politics at the local level at a glance 139 Table 4-2 Women as independent candidates 139 List of Maps Map 3.1 “Top” and “Bottom” performing districts according to party democracy index 40 Map 1-1 PDI Mapping of AL districts 128 Map 1-2 PDI Mapping of BNP districts 129 Map 2-1 Political violence in Bangladesh 2008-12 134 Map 2-2 Political violence in Bangladesh 2013 135 viii List of Boxes Box 1 Cases showing how parallel authority functions 17 Box 1-1 Brief methodology for Chapter 3 121 Box 1-2 Relevant formulae for Chapter 3 126 Box 1-3 Districts in which no meetings are held 127 Box 4-1 Requirements for nomination specified in the RPO (from Akter 2014) 140 List of Figures Figure 2.1 Partyarchy and political development: selection of cases 10 Figure 2.2 Comparative crime statistics: 2002-2012 12 Figure 3.1 Drawbacks of the current democratic system in Bangladesh 32 Figure 3.2 Role of different actors to select leaders at district committees 35 Figure 3.3 Journalists' perception on the recruitment of Dist.

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