The Reporter's Guide HANDBOOK ON ELECTION REPORTING Tips, background and relevant information to help cover the Sixth Parliamentary Elections, Bangladesh Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD) www.pathagar.com www.pathagar.com The Reporter's Guide HANDBOOK ON ELECTION REPORTING Contributors Ataus Samad, Sakhawat Ali Khan, Hossain Zillur Rahman, Obaidul Huq, Richard Galpin, Subrata Shankar Dhar, Moazzem Hossain, Muniruzzaman, Manik Saha, Mohiuddin Farooque, Rizwana Hasan, Q A Tahmina, Philip Gain, Shishir Moral, Abdur Razzaque Khan, Ajit Sarkar and Dilara Begum Coordinators ~ Philip Gain and Shishir Moral Advisor Sakhawat Ali Khan Editors Q A Tahmina, Philip Gain and Shishir Moral Editorial Assistants Rumana Siddique and Sabrina Shamshad www.pathagar.com Published by The Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD) 44/8 North Dhanmondi, West Panthapath, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh Copyright© 1995 by Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD) All rights reserved. Except for brief quotes used in connection with reviews and articles written for publication in magazine or newspaper, no part of this publication may be reprinted or reproduced in any form without prior and written permission of the publisher. The Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to increasing public understanding of free and fair elections, democratic rights, environment, development, multilateral development banks (MOBs) and human rights issues. Founded in 1993, the organization has researched quite extensively on issues related to elections, democracy, forests, forest communities (the indigenous peoples of the forest land), human rights and environment. The organization is committed to providing an information base on these issues, promoting investigative journalism through training and undertaking action research. Cover design: Goutam Chakraborty ' ISBN: 984-494-001-X Printed by: The CAD System 5 North Circular Road, Dhaka-1205 .t I H .. ~ • .l ko ...wUu T T~~ 1 n www.pathagar.com Contents Section A Important Sources of Election Reporting 02-D9 Ataus Samad Election Coverage: Stage by Stage 10-27 Philip Gain and Shishir Moral Election Commission Informs 28-36 Muniruzzaman Reporting from Remote Areas 37-42 Manik Saha and Shishir Moral Covering Elections for the International Media 43-48 Richard Galpin Things Deserving More Coverage 49-56 Subrata Shankar Dhar Election Features 57-79 QA Tahmina Voters vs Candidates 80-85 Moazzem Hossain Rapport for Reporting 86-89 Obaidul Huq Manifesting Manifestos 90-95 Dilara Begum Meet the Press 96-99 Sakhawat Ali Khan www.pathagar.com Section B General Elections: British and Pakistan Periods 101-111 Sakhawat Ali Khan General Elections in Bangladesh 112-133 Philip Gain Fifth Parliament at a Glance 134-138 Ajit Sarkar and Dilara Begum Essential Election Laws and Their Loopholes 139-159 Mohiuddin Farooque and Rizwana Hasan A Penny for People's Thoughts 160-170 Hossain Zillur Rahman Election Monitoring in Bangladesh 171-183 Philip Gain and Shishir Moral . Radio Bangladesh and BTV: Elections on Air 184-191 Abdur Razzaque Khan The Election Researchers 192-198 Philip Gain and Shishir Moral Section C Annexure- A: Code of Conduct 200-204 Annexure- B : Constituencies for the Sixth Parliamentary Elections 205-248 Annexure - C : Major Political Parties 249-250 Annexure - D : Election Maladies in India 251-255 www.pathagar.com Contributors Mr. Ataus Samad, senior journalist and former BBC correspondent. Dr. Sakhawat Ali Khan, professor, Mass Communication and Journalism, Dhaka University. Dr. Hossain Zillur Rahman, senior research fellow, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). Mr. Obaidul Huq, senior journalist and former editor, The Bangladesh Observer. Mr. Moazzem Hossain, editor, The Financial Express. Mr. Muniruzzaman, staff writer, Jai Jai Din (a leading Bangia weekly). Mr. Manik Saha, staff reporter, The Sangbad (a leading Bangia Daily). Mr. Richard Galpin, correspondent, BBC, Dhaka. Dr. Subrata Shankar Dhar, assistant professor, Mass Communication and Journalism, Dhaka University. Dr. Mohiuddin Farooque, secretary general, Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA). Ms. Rizwana Hasan, staff lawyer, BELA. Ms. Q A Tahmina, journalist. Mr. Philip Gain, free lance journalist and GS, Society for Environment and Human Development. Mr. Shishir Moral, free lance journalist and researcher, SEHD. Mr. Abdur Razzaque Khan, free lance journalist. Mr. Ajit Sarkar, journalist. Ms. Dilara Begum, free lance journalist. www.pathagar.com Preface Raising public awareness of free and fair elections and democratic rights through research, documentation and sharing of information on elections and democratic issues is one of the top priorities of the Society for Environment and Human Development. SEHD believes that the information media can and should play a positive and well defined role in institutionalizing electoral processes and democracy at large. We in SEHD feel that we share this task with the media people and we must combine our efforts if we are to achieve anything meaningful. The Handbook on Election Reporting is our first attempt towards that goal. We hope to update this handbook before each parliamentary elections and also supplement it with other works from time to time. The first section of this handbook comprises practical guidelines for election reporting in general, and for covering the sixth parliamentary elections in particular. We hope, tips from some senior journalists of the country and journalism trainers would really be useful to others who may consult this book. The second section tries to compile some essential background information on elections in this country. We have also tried to give thumbnail sketches of the laws and opinion polls concerning elections. Besides, election monitoring and media monitoring have been discussed briefly. The last section annexes a list of the constituencies with the winners and runners-up in the 1991 elections; the code of conduct for the sixth parliamentary elections; nam~s and contacts of the major political parties; and a list of election maladies that generally occur in Indian elections which may be comparable to oul' situation. At the end of the articles we have tried to give relevant contacts and their telephone numbers which may enable the reporters to locate different sources of information quickly. We do hope, this handbook would be of help to the journalists~ election monitors, researchers and others interested in the subject. Work on this book began in February, 1995. Although we tried our best to make the handbook a useful one, it can still be improved a lot. For one thing, it could certainly have more original·research. We should also have covered the local government elections to complete the picture. We learnt a lot during the process of preparing this book and hope to do a better job next time. We sincerely apologize for the · shortcoming and any inadvertent error. SEHD would welcome suggestions from the readers for the next update of the handbook. www.pathagar.com Acknowledgement Along- with the authors who contributed the articles, a team of individuals from different fields worked very hard to make this handbook possible. All of them have been with us right from the planning stage to the final production. Their help and advice have been invaluable to us and we thank them sincerely. We also thank The Asia Foundation for its financial support. The opinions expressed are those- of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Asia Foundation. www.pathagar.com www.pathagar.com Important Sources of Election Reporting Ataus Samad A reporter can write three types of report on elections, strait-jacket, interpretative and investigative, just like in the case of other major topics. There are some common sources and source-materials for all kinds" of election reporting, i.e. who announces the election and its results, the laws in accordance with which the elections have to be conducted, the authority which makes these laws and the tribunals and courts of appeal for hearing complaints regarding election malpractices. But the nature of election, local or national, and the type of reporting will ultimately determine the sources that will be required to be found and used. Some of these sources may be different from those mentioned above, especially in the case of investigative reporting. A general aspiration around national elections is that they be held in a democratic manner. In a hearing in the U.S. senate on the 1988 [Bangladesh] parliamentary elections, serious attention was given to whether or not Bangladeshi voters had enough alternative choices in selecting their candidates. An official of the U.S. government has also used the term fully contested elections. This means that: (a) the voters should have more than one person to choose from, (b) between them the candida~es should represent the major political opinions in the country, (c) in addition, there may be candidates upholding or projecting some other views as well, and (d) all voters should be able to freely cast their votes. - Thus calling elections is not enough; the major political parties www.pathagar.com 3 Handbook on Election Reporting should participate in the elections so that the voters have enough choices in selecting their candidates, and conditions should be such that all parties feel that they can run in the elections without hindrance and voters can vote in a similar fashion. One working