The successful conclusion of elections in Bangladesh on 12 June can be credited largely to a constitutional innovation—the provision included by the 13th constitutional amendment earlier this year which requires all general elections henceforth to be conducted under a caretaker government. Ironically, that amendment itself was adopted by a Parliament which had little or no legitimacy, comprised as it was entirely of members of Begum Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party that had been elected in the 15 February polls boycotted by all other parties.
Whatever the pedigree of the amendment, the idea was put to the test on 12 June and it passed with full marks. Thus, the caretaker-government-during-elections concept becomes something that neighbouring countries too might study for its relevance.
The main reason the caretaker government worked was that the Chief Advisor and other Advisors (as they are called) were competent individuals, former justices, bureaucrats and technocrats with unimpeachable references. As Chief Advisor (really the Prime Minister), former Chief Justice Mohammad Habibur Rahman was scrupulously fair in running the government.
Justice Rahman's most important task, the raison d'etre of the 13th amendment, was to ensure free and fair elections, and so he took extra special care in selecting the Election Commission team, headed by former bureaucrat Md Abu Hena. And because of the transparent neutrality of the "non-party" caretaker government, both the major political parties found it difficult to cry foul.