Citizens' Forum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bangladesh |
 This article is part of the series: |
|
|
|
Other countries · Atlas Politics Portal |
Citizens' Forum (Bengali: Nagarik Samiti), also known as Citizens' Power (Bengali: Nagarik Shakti), was a proposed political party in Bangladesh which was to be founded by Muhammad Yunus to contest the next Bangladeshi parliamentary election.[1]
The name "Citizens' Forum" was not the official name of the party, but the favorite of Yunus at that time.[2] Yunus, a Nobel Laureate for Peace known as the Banker to the Poor, said the party would be based on support of volunteers in the local and ward levels of Bangladesh. Supporters of Yunus were expected to form groups of 20 citizens Yunus Samarthok Gosthi (Yunus Supporters' Groups) that would work using their own money and resources to elect representatives. Yunus claimed: "If local people want to see good people elected, they will have to spend their own money. You will not get good people in your own area by spending other's money."[3] The Citizens' Forum strategy would have rejected the current mode of elections in Bangladesh, which had torn the country apart over debate on election reform and killed 34 people in violent protests.[4] The main platform of Citizens' Forum would have been to be to empower the poor and end the dominance of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League: Yunus wanted "complete emasculation of the established political parties", since "at the very least, it would indicate a strong desire to cleanse the polity of massive corruption."[5]
Yunus dropped the idea in early May 2007.[6]
 |
This article about an Asian political party is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 |
This article about a Bangladeshi organisation is a stub. You can help by expanding it. |
