Parliamentary Election and Political Violence in Bangladesh

Abstract

Politics of Bangladesh has been criminalized over the last four decades resulting multi-level political violence. Political violence is particularly high during the parliamentary election period. This study analyses the nature, causes, and immediate fatalities of political violence during parliamentary election in Bangladesh. Secondary research methods have been used to conduct this study. Data were collected using structured checklist technique analyzing the newspaper contents. This study has revealed that incidents of violence in the month of parliamentary election as well as before and after the month of election are higher than other months. People also become more victim of violence in the month of parliamentary election, before and after the month of parliamentary election than other months. This study has found that the main causes of political violence are strike, blockade, internal and external conflict between political parties, political conflicts, political revenge and establishing political supremacy over a certain area. This study also found that police responses to the incidents of political violence is very low. This rationale of the study implies on that the descriptive findings of the study that can be used to understand the issues and formulate policy to prevent political violence as well as to improve political environment in Bangladesh encouraging the democratic culture to fulfill their goals avoiding the means of violence and conflict. Keywords: Politics, Violence, Election, Political conflicts, Democracy DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/89-11 Publication date:September 30th 201