Another day, another ‘election’ in Bangladesh

Given how ‘elections’ happen in Bangladesh, the mayoral one in the northern half of the capital Dhaka is no surprise with the usual make-believe candidates running against the anointed ruling junta selectee and the press showing all the silly coverage of phony canvassing and long queues at polling booths. It is doubly phony since the mayors of any city in Bangladesh have little more than ceremonial duties: they have no control over the roads, healthcare, utilities, police or education in their communities and can be dismissed by the “Prime Minister” at will. https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/election/2019/02/28/dncc-by-polls-atiqul-leads-in-162-centres So why do they make such a big deal out of it? Mostly for public consumption, as is wont in dictatorships; it gives an aura of public participation, fools the lazy stringers writing for Western newspapers who don’t want to delve deeper than the headlines,  gets ceremonial props for upcoming midlevel leaders of the ruling party, strokes the ego of many a protocol-hungry Bangladeshi  politico who has no consequence otherwise, and allows the largely compliant press to fill column inches…as the utterly fawning first sentence of the story reads without an iota of irony.