Rationale

Election violence is a well-known phenomenon to many people who in the process get injured and killed during every national election. Many political leaders are unwilling to defeat and often resort to violence to try and foil the election results. They also seek to validate their violent activities, claiming those as protests for the fraudulent result of the election. It is seen that these violent activities are mostly carried out by the youth wing of the political parties. It causes fear for women and men and creates a lack of interest among the general youth towards participating in the election.

The purpose of this program was to promote peace through youth-led initiatives before and after the 2018 National Election in Bangladesh. Through this project, the youth were able to engage in constructive conversations with influential members of political parties, candidates of constituencies, members of civil society and press. So that it helps to promote the peaceful political and election culture.

Objective

Create and promote peace through youth led initiatives in 7 districts of Bangladesh for National Election 2018.

Activity Details

1. Workshops and Town Hall meeting

A total of 785 participants attended the workshop and townHall meeting discussions from 7 locations. The key issues that were discussed were the locality problems and probable solutions,youth expectation from the government administration politicians, candidates and political workers to maintain peace before and after the Election Day.

2. Debate Sessions

The participants from the workshops and town hall meetings also engaged in 7 debate sessions in 7 districts of Bangladesh. Two groups were formed (Winning Party and Opposition Party) who discussed the issues talked upon during the workshop and TownHall meetings. The 314 participants were given one topic to openly discuss the prospects and challenges of implementing the selected topic.

3. Post election Dialogue

The six post-election discussions were held in Dhaka, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Bogura, Comilla, and Narayanganj, a total of 310 youth and participants from political parties, civil society and press were engaged in discussions. The dialogue focused on skill development and self-employment, accountability for government service to end corruption, society free from drugs and extremism, opportunity for recreation, mental health and physical development. Overall, the goal was to ensure peace is promoted during the transition period after the national election.