Political scientist Prof Dilara Choudhury said the country might experience a return of 'non-political forces' to politics if politicians fail to learn from the events of 1/11 and its fallout.
"It's true that democracy is not possible without political parties, but political leaders shouldn't think that it is impossible to do away with them. Somebody else will fill the vacuum, but that might not be in the interest of the people," she said in an interview with The Daily Star.
Although the caretaker government finally moved to establish good relations with political parties, it had shown a negative attitude towards them at the beginning being misguided by some advisers, which elicited equal negativity from the parties, she said.
Hoping that the parties will refrain from nominating known corruptionists and persons facing criminal charges, she said the parties must return to healthy democratic politics to regain public confidence, which they lost due to their involvement in criminality over the years.
Saying that the Election Commission did not play its due role during the city corporation and municipality elections, the Jahangirnagar University professor urged it to properly scrutinise candidacy seekers' information, to keep 'questionable persons' out of the parliamentary race.
Saying that not only the government but some donors were also pushing the minus 2 formula, she added that it is the prerogative of the people to minus anyone.
Confrontational politics can be ended quickly if Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina seriously desire that, she noted adding that their recent speeches however indicate they might not keep acting like before anymore.
Strongly opposing having the emergency during the election, she quipped, "If the government thinks the emergency is needed to keep away hooligans, would it be desirable to bring in the emergency every time we will have an election?"
Details of the interview