GENERAL ELECTION OF 1970

AYUB KHAN STEPPING DOWN

• Sheikh Mujib was adamant on 6 points and 11 points

• The People of East Pakistan joined in the massive upsurge against the ruling of Ayub Khan
• It gained momentum in West Pakistan too
• In between this time around 70 people died
• As a result of this, things went beyond the control of Ayub Khan
• Ayub Khan stepped down as a result
• New Successor came as General Yahya Khan, he promised re-establishment of democracy in
Pakistan
• Military power would distribute the power among the elected public Representatives
 GENERAL ELECTION OF 1970

• Coming to power, General Yahiya Khan in a radio address promised to hand over the power
• As a development, political activities were permitted soon
• At the same time, polling for election to the national assembly and provincial assembly
were declared to be commenced on 5 October and 22 October
• Polling dates were later delayed
• Finally it happened on 7 and 17 December
• Cyclone hit several regions, election took place in those areas later
 LEGAL FRAMEWORK ORDER

• Yahiya Khan, announced a legal framework order in 1970 relating to Election

• In this framework he focused on the number of seats allocated for national assembly and
provincial assembly, procedures of polling, time allotment to conduct the election process and
form a constitution
• There shall be a national assembly of Pakistan consisting of 313 members of whom 13 shall be
women and 5 provincial legislative assembly will be comprised of 613 members in total
• One Person, One Vote – principle was taken for this election
• Economic and Legal powers will be distributed among the elected representatives
• List of voters shall be prepared by June 1970
• First session of assembly period will be of 120 days to form constitution. If they fail to form
constitution in this given period, the assembly will be dissolved and new election will take
place.
 LEGAL FRAMEWORK ORDER

6 basic fundamental principles of the constitution were addressed by General Yahiya Khan
• Pakistan Shall be a federal country
• Islamic Ideology will be the foundation
• Legislative members will be elected through elections
• Fundamental rights of the citizen will be guaranteed
• Within specified period, economic and other disparities will be removed from the country
• Judiciary Independence will be secured

This legal framework order was criticized by the East Pakistani leaders due to its weak appeal to
form a parliament instead of going for supreme parliament system.
 Awami League preparing for the Election

• Pro-Awami League parties were interested in forming a coalition to take part in this election
• Awami League Party Leader, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman wanted to compete this
election independently
• Awami League had symbol of country boat in this election
• 162 candidates were competing for National Assembly seats from AWAMI League out of 781
candidates
 Result

• Awami League won 160/162

seats
• Awami League emerged as single In national Assembly, AL won 75% votes
largest party to win a majority 167 In Provincial Assembly, AL won 70.48%
seats including reserved women votes
seats
• East Pakistan Provincial Assembly,
AL won 298/310 seats
 Result
• Awami League earned the right to form their own government
• However Yahiya Khan refused to handle over the government and power to the AL
• Zulfikar Ali Bhutto provoked Yahiya Khan to dismiss meetings which later created chaos among
the mind of general people
• Swadhin Bangla Chhatro Parishad was formed to protect the general people from the clash
and to unify people on strike
• On march 2, The flag of Bangladesh was hoisted at the student rally at DU
• Student League took 5 points resolution in a meeting where Bangabandhu was the chief guest
on March 3
• Everyone called on a hartal actively and supported it
• This hartal got momentum all around the country and Yahiya Khan was frightened at this and
immediately said they would form the assembly on 25 March
• People were not assured
• A grand Rally was arranged at Race course Ground, presently Suhrawardi Uddyan, on 7th
march.
 Significance of the Election

• This election was the result of unified Bangalee nationalism

• The cry for autonomous state finally made sense as eastern side won the
election by major part
• The demand for Six points based on autonomy finally got its validity
• This Election proved that West side don’t want to free us from our misery so a
war for freedom was inevitable