Why vote?
On 30th January 2018, Bangladesh will go to poll.
Now if I be honest with you, to some extent, this poll is a sham. The opposition party is in a dire straits and in a abysmal position. They leaders are in either jail or in self imposed exile. But that’s not the point. The point is they were allowed to run the campaign in a meaningful way. Most of the time the ruling party did use the force of the government and stopped the opposition from running a proper campaign.
Still, given those dark facts, I believe, or want to believe that we should vote. Because our votes might change our government or at least force them to think twice about the way they are running the country.
I wrote the above part before the Election of 30 December 2018 in Bangladesh. But could not finish it for some reasons. I was hoping that the Election would change the way the country is being run, specially politically. I really hoped that the Election would force the current government to allow more freedom of speech, more political activities. But that did not happen.
Before the vote my wife asked me why I am going to Chittagong to vote while there is a very good chance that my vote would not have any kind of impact. I answered my wife - if I do not vote, I would lose the moral right to criticize the current system, the government.
So at the end of the day, I have the moral right to speak out loud against the government, but that might endanger my life.