Troubled times worldwide and our presidential election

In Europe Russia and Ukraine have been at war since February 24, 2022. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) verified a total of 35,160 civilian casualties as of 31 July 2024. Of them, 23,640 people were reported to have been injured. However, OHCHR specified that the real numbers could be higher. 

The US and the West who back Ukraine are pouring more and more armaments and finances into Ukraine to prolong the conflict rather than to bring an end to it.

Since the war began, the U.S. Congress has provided Ukraine with financial help. In April 2024, US support for the war effort stood at $175 billion! 

Since January 2022, most Western nations have pledged more than $380 billion in aid to Ukraine, including nearly $118 billion in direct military aid from individual countries. The UK has provided Ukraine with £7.6 billion in military assistance. 

In the United Kingdom, anti-immigration protests and far-right riots have occurred in England and Northern Ireland targeting refugees and Muslims since 30 July 2024. The riots followed a mass stabbing in Southport (UK) on 29 July in which three children were killed.  

The attacker was falsely alleged on social media to be a Muslim/an asylum seeker or both. 

In the US, presidential elections are to be held in November this year. One of the candidates has been forced to withdraw leaving the field wide open. Former President Donald Trump is contesting once again. Polls indicated he was favourite to win the presidency. But since the sitting president withdrew his candidacy the present Democratic Party candidate is leading according to recent polls predictions. 

Trump supporters claim his defeat (if it happens) will be a result of election fraud. There are fears of post election violence in the event Kamala Harris the challenger from the Democratic Party wins the election.

Nearer home in a still ongoing conflict, Israel has been continuously attacking Palestine since 7 October last year. Over 40,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed. Among those killed were17, 000 children of whom 2,100 were below two years of age.   

Even closer home, Bangladesh is still emerging from a violent struggle which led to a regime change and left nearly 650 dead according to a UN report. 

In our own country, we are just emerging from an economic crisis which led to our then head of state fleeing the country in 2022. He was replaced by a new president who came from a political party which was unable to win a single seat at the last general elections.  

That president is now credited with turning around the economic woes of this country. We are now in the midst of a run-up to a presidential election which will be held on 21 September this year. 

 
All elections in our country have been preceded by violence to a greater or lesser degree. This time around though, tensions are running high, especially since this election is being conducted while most people in the country are economically deprived.  

A majority of citizens are living in hunger. Central Bank reports show rising malnutrition among children amid heightened food insecurity of households that was exacerbated during the economic crisis in 2022.  
According to UNICEF as of May 2023, 3.9 million people were moderately food insecure with over 10,000 households facing severe food insecurity. Over 2.9 million children need humanitarian assistance to access lifesaving nutrition, health, education, water and sanitation, protection, and social protection services. 
Our presidential candidates are making people believe that they will ameliorate these conditions. Since all of the front-line candidates have stated they accept conditions imposed by the IMF, there is little chance of an immediate easing of our economic woes.  

An inability to deliver could fuel unrest. 

In many of the conflicts taking place in countries around us, vested interests fueled the fires of war and destruction. We need to be vigilant against agents of vested interests who will attempt to sow seeds of discord which could easily lead to post- election violence. In turn this could lead to the undoing of the good work which brought us out of the dark days of 2022.