Amid the tumultuous showdown of the opposition, calls for a boycott of the election process, and chaos across the whole country Bangladesh is all set to go for polls on January 7. Significantly, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s one-woman show is expected to dominate the crucial election season. The exiled opposition leader Tarique Rahman has described the polls in Bangladesh as a “sham”, designed to cement Hasina’s rule. The Opposition party, BNP has boycotted the elections because according to them, Hasina has refused to accept its demand to cede power to a caretaker government to run the polls.
Notably, Rahman’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) had staged month-long protests in 2023 demanding the resignation of PM Hasina and saw nearly 11 being killed and thousands of its supporters getting arrested. While the current BNP leader and Sheikh Hasina’s main rival, Khaleda Zia is under house arrest on graft charges. Rights groups and political leaders around the world, including the United States have raised concerns over the conduct of the upcoming elections, which are expected to be lopsided. Meanwhile, Bharat has said that elections in Bangladesh are an internal matter and the country fully supports Dhaka’s democratic process.
Nonetheless, Sheikh Hasina, who is actively campaigning amidst the Opposition’s boycott, has repeatedly vowed that the elections will be fair and credible. While campaigning last week, she urged the citizens to go to the polling stations and cast votes to show the world that Bangladesh knows how to hold the elections in a free and fair manner.
Sheikh Hasina’s government has been credited with turning around the economy and the garment industry. However, Another crucial factor that marks the Bangladesh polls is its economic situation, which is at a point that led to an IMF bailout last year.
Critics have accused Hasina’s government of authoritarianism, human rights violations, a crackdown on free speech, and suppression of dissent. Hasina also got global praise for sheltering nearly a million Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in neighboring Myanmar.
Why Do Bangladesh Elections Matter For India?
The upcoming elections in Bangladesh matter for Bharat, as Dhaka is not just its neighboring nation, but also a strategic and close ally. The country is also crucial for the security of its northeastern states.
Under Hasina’s rule, both Bangladesh and Bharat have forged closer ties. When she visited New Del hi in 2022, she said that Bangladesh should not forget India, its government, people, and armed forces as it stood beside the country during the independence war in 1971.
However, the Opposition BNP has criticized New Delhi for its backing of the Awami League party. The senior BNP leader, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi stated that Bharat must support the people of Bangladesh and not a particular party. He further alleged that New Delhi was alienating the people of Bangladesh by rooting for Sheikh Hasina’s government and backing what he called “dummy elections”.
Thus, if the BNP returns, besides its criticisms, there are additional concerns that if the party comes to power along with Jamaat-e-Islami, there would be a return of Islamists in Bangladesh, as the same happened when the coalition was in power between 2001 and 2006.
This would mark the South Asian country’s 12th general election since it gained independence from Pakistan in 1971, while Hasina has been in power since 2009. The votes are expected to be counted on Sunday evening, and the results are due early on Monday. About 120 million registered voters will choose 300 members of parliament in the vote.
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