BANGLADESH held general elections on January 7, where the ruling incumbent Sheikh Hasina Wajid won a consecutive fourth term. The United States Department of State said that the election was not free and fair and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office termed the election lacking the preconditions of democracy. According to “The Economist”, through this election, Bangladesh effectively became a one-party state. For a Pakistani to comment on the credibility and fairness of elections in Bangladesh may be tantamount to “sour grapes” or “the pot calling the kettle black”. However, having shared the same flag for 24 years, and despite the painful severance, events in Bangladesh do evoke interest here. While we rejoice at the achievements of Bangladesh, we are pained at the suffering of its people.
Sheikh Hasina Wajid, the incumbent Prime Minister won a consecutive fourth term and overall, her fifth. In the 7th January polls, of the 300 parliamentary seats contested, the ruling Awami League (AL) led by Hasina won 223; the Jatiya Party (Ershad) 11 seats; the Workers’ Party, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) and Bangladesh Kalyan Party, one each; and independent candidates, most of whom were AL members propped up as dummy candidates to give a semblance of competition, won 62 seats. The election was postponed in one constituency, as required by law, after an independent candidate died. The overall turnout was low, with only 40 per cent of approximately 120 million eligible voters taking part, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal disclosed, on January 7. The elections being bogus stems from the fact that they were boycotted by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by former Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia, after Hasina rejected calls to resign to let a neutral caretaker government run the election. She had vowed that “Bangladesh will never allow an unelected government again.” Hasina’s resistance to a caretaker government arose following the 2006-2008 crisis, during which a caretaker government assumed military control of the country and arrested a number of political leaders, including Hasina and BNP leader Khaleda Zia. Another 15 opposition parties also boycotted the election. Many leaders and supporters of the BNP were arrested prior to the elections. The low turnout of voters, and the alleged harassment of the opposition, leaves the AL government with a clear majority but it remains devoid of any credibility or legitimacy.
The Hasina Government had, earlier, strengthened its political hold over the country as a result of its overwhelming win in the 11th General Elections held in December 2018. The AL-led 14-party-alliance had secured a huge majority of 288 seats in the 300-member Jatiyo Shangshad (National Parliament). The Opposition parties contested the 2018 elections as an alliance, but performed abysmally. The 10th General Elections, conducted on January 5, 2014, faced a comprehensive boycott by the Opposition, as well as by some of Hasina’s allies, prominently including General H. M. Ershad’s Jatiya Party. The opposition later rued its decision to boycott and gave the AL an uncontested run.
Sheikh Hasina Wajed has suppressed the opposition through various means. BNP workers have been hit by a staggering 4 million legal cases, while independent journalists and civil society also complain of vindictive harassment. Both previous elections, in 2014 and 2018, were condemned by the U.S., E.U. and others for significant irregularities, including stuffed ballot boxes and thousands of phantom voters.AL won 84% and 82% of the vote, respectively.
The War Crimes (WC) Trials, which began on March 25, 2010, have continued despite severe criticism by international jurists. So far, a total of 125 leaders, including 50 from the Jamaat-e-Islami; 27 from the Muslim League; 11 from the Nezam-e-Islami; five from the BNP; two each from Jatiya Party-Ershad and Peoples Democratic Party; 27 former Razakars; and one former Al-Badr member, have been indicted. Significantly, out of these, verdicts have been delivered against 104 accused, including 86 who have been sentenced to death, 36 to imprisonment for life and five for 20 years imprisonment. Six of the 86 persons who were awarded the death sentence have been hanged, so far. Of 36 persons who were awarded life sentences, six persons have already died in prison. On November 30, 2023, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), led by Justice Mohammad Shahinur Islam, sentenced seven accused to death for committing a series of crimes against humanity, including murder and rape, in the Bagerhat District of Khulna Division, during the 1971 Liberation War.
There is ample evidence of former Mukti Bahini leaders being guilty of genocide, rape and other severe crimes against non-Bengalis but none have been charged or even castigated. Washington is concerned about Bangladesh’s drift toward despotism. Hasina was not invited to the latest two U.S.-hosted Summit for Democracy gatherings, which is a slight for Bangladesh and its pretenses towards democracy. Joe Biden must have taken his cue from the poor rating of Bangladesh in its polls which received a Freedom and Fairness Score of 0.16 only, way below even Pakistan.
The combined opposition has threatened to intensify street mobilization against the Government, which is unlikely to alter the political environment. With an overwhelming majority in Parliament once again, it is unlikely that Sheikh Hasina will confront any extraordinary challenge in continuing with the policies that have been a hallmark of her earlier tenures. Simultaneously, Bangladesh’s leading Opposition party BNP has launched an “India Out” campaign on the lines of Maldives’ present ruling party led by President Mohammed Muizzu that helped him come to power. Leading social media outlets supporting the BNP, including a popular YouTube program run by doctor Pinaki Bhattacharya, have called for wholesale boycott of Indian products, to “punish India for supporting PM Hasina’s return to power by fraudulent means”. Ironically, Bangladesh is in the crosshairs of Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks Bangladesh 147 out of 180 countries worldwide—level with Iran and one place above Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. So, Bangladesh may have progressed economically, but its current dispensation in the corridors of power smacks of a dictatorship because the 2024 elections were a sham.
—The writer is a Retired Group Captain of PAF, who has written several books on China.
Email: sultanm.hali@gmail.com
views expressed are writer’s own.
