There was no surprise in the January 7 Bangladesh national elections, which were boycotted by the main opposition party. In the preliminary results, the Awami League, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s party, had won 222 seats in the 300-member Parliament, while the Jatiya Party, one of several smaller opposition parties in the fray, secured 11 seats. Most of the remaining seats went to independents. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) called for a general strike, protesting the “sham” election and demanding Ms. Hasina’s resignation. The BNP, which had accused the Awami League of rigging past elections, had demanded elections under a neutral caretaker government. But Ms. Hasina dismissed the opposition’s call, saying there was no provision for caretaker governments in the amended Constitution, leading to violent protests and a crackdown on the opposition. Ms. Hasina says the elections were free and fair, but her attempt to dismantle the BNP using state institutions is hardly a secret. Former Prime Minister and BNP leader Khaleda Zia is under house arrest over corruption charges; the party’s acting leader and her son, Tarique Rahman, lives in London in exile; and several other senior party leaders are in jail. The elections, held amid the BNP’s strike, saw a fall in voter turnout — from over 80% five years ago to 40%.
Being Sheikh Hasina is not easy. Most of her family members, including her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, were massacred on August 15, 1975 in Dhaka. She fought Ershad’s dictatorship along with Ms. Zia in the 1980s and early 1990s, steering the country back to democracy. In the early 2000s, when the BNP was in power, a grenade attack on one of her rallies killed 20 of her comrades. In her second term, in 2009, Bangladesh was grappling with a host of challenges, including internal instability. Ms. Hasina offered a stable civilian rule, cracked down on Islamist extremists, held those responsible for the 1971 genocide accountable and oversaw a period of economic boom and opportunities. Unsurprisingly, independent polls show that most Bangladeshis approve of Ms. Hasina’s performance. But at the same time, the woman who once fought for democracy now faces accusations of turning the South Asian country of 170 million people into a one-party state. She now faces new economic and political realities. Post-COVID-19, there is high inflation, falling foreign exchange reserves and a doubling of debt. Neither Ms. Hasina’s vengeful high-handedness nor the opposition’s violent non-cooperation is helping Bangladesh. The Prime Minister, in her fourth term, should be more conciliatory and accommodative if she is to build a democratic, prosperous naya Bangladesh.
