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IFES

Bangladesh

IFES began working in Bangladesh in 1997. Since that time, we have conducted a nationwide survey measuring voters’ opinions about social and political issues and have worked with Bangladesh’s Election Commission to enable them to better conduct free and fair elections. In 2006, IFES began to implement the EVER project, which aims to monitor and reduce electoral violence. IFES’ work in Bangladesh has been funded by USAID and the Asia Foundation.
Current Projects
Combating Electoral Violence
Strong political tensions exist between Bangladesh’s major parties (the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League) and in recent years, these tensions have sometimes spilled over into violence, which has killed hundreds of people.
 
Bangladesh had scheduled general elections for January 2007, but unfortunately, election violence disrupted these plans. The opposition (led by the Awami League) threatened to boycott the elections unless the Election Commission was reorganized and the voter registry updated (among other things). In January, former central bank governor Fakhruddin Ahmed assumed the head of the country’s caretaker government, promising to create a new election commission, a new voter list, and new voter identity cards (among other things). A date for the elections has not yet been set.
 
The Electoral Violence Education and Resolution project (EVER) supports local stakeholders as they work to monitor and mitigate election violence. (IFES considers election violence a unique form of conflict requiring its own resolution techniques.) The project has developed methods to track election-related violence and to communicate those findings to key stakeholders in the election process.
 
In order to promote peaceful, free and fair elections in Bangladesh, IFES, in partnership with its local implementing partner Odhikar, and with support from the Asia Foundation, has been implementing EVER techniques in 45 conflict-prone constituencies.  Since October 2006, EVER monitors have documented and reported on election-related violence. These reports are analyzed by Odhikar, who then communicates the findings to key stakeholders. Thus far, local stakeholders have incorporated several Odhikar recommendations into their election preparations, and election violence in the monitored constituencies has decreased. 
More about IFES' survey and research work »
More about IFES' elections work »

Past Projects in Bangladesh »

To learn more about our experts from this region, visit here.

For more information, please contact us at europe.asia.programs@ifes.org.

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Bangladesh News and Materials
January 6, 2009
IFES.org Feature: Report: Risk of post-election violence remains in historic Bangladeshi poll
November 2001
Survey: Issues and Priorities for Bangladesh: The 2000 IFES National Survey (.pdf)
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