PERISCOPE

The Transparency International (TI) report on December 30, 2018 Bangladesh elections is problematic for the regime. TI said in 94% of the places it used in its sample they found vote rigging (47 out of 50). 66% of the places had ballot stuffing the night prior (33 out of 50).

TI is one of the few credible international organizations that was allowed to work in this election in a formal capacity, and who released a statistically sound analysis using sampling methods. TI used to rank Bangladesh the World’s Most Corrupt Country during the time when BNP was in power. They did that few times during Khaleda’s term as Prime Minister. Khaleda Zia used to be angry at TI back then for destroying the “image” of Bangladesh and her party. The current regime now blames TI as someone working for BNP.

TI is a western organization so the regime in Bangladesh will not be able to kill or jail its officers (I hope). However, TI will surely not be able to do any more election-related work in the future under this regime.

TI was the last credible organization standing with a proper method for analyzing fraud in this election and they did their professional job.

Shafquat Rabbee
Dhaka