Ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told Reuters on Wednesday that millions of voters in her party, the Awami League, will boycott next year’s election after the party was barred from contesting the polls.
“The ban on the Awami League is not only unjust, it is self-defeating,” Hasina told Reuters via email from her exile in New Delhi. The exchange was reportedly her first media engagement since she fell from power after 15 years leading Bangladesh.
Hasina, 78, said she will not return to her home country while the current government excludes her party from elections. She said she plans to stay in India, where she fled in August 2024 after a violent student-led uprising. The current interim government is being led by Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, who has governed since Hasina resigned and promised to hold elections in February of next year, according to the report.
“The next government must have electoral legitimacy,” Hasina told the outlet. “Millions of people support the Awami League, so as things stand, they will not vote. You cannot disenfranchise millions of people if you want a political system that works.”
The Election Commission blocked the Awami League’s registration in May after the Yunus-led government banned all party activities. The current government cited national security threats and war crimes investigations into senior Awami League leaders as justification, according to the report.
There are more than 126 million registered voters in Bangladesh, with the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party having a long stronghold on the country’s politics. The BNP is anticipated to win the upcoming vote, according to the report.
“We are not asking Awami League voters to support other parties,” Hasina said. “We still hope common sense will prevail and we will be allowed to contest the election ourselves.”
Hasina did not say whether she or anyone working for her is in discussion with Bangladeshi authorities to let her party participate in the polls.
Hasina is the daughter of the first leader of independent Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujb Rahman. In 1975, when Hasina was 28 and living in Germany with her younger sister, her parents and three other siblings were gunned down by army officers in a military coup. Her younger sister, Sheikh Rehana, was reportedly with her when she escaped from the capital city of Dhaka by helicopter, Breitbart’s John Hayward reported:
Hasina returned to Bangladesh after years of exile in India, becoming embroiled in a long feud with military and opposition leaders before winning her first race for prime minister in 1996 and serving until 2001. The 15-year stretch in office that just ended was her second administration.
Politics in Bangladesh has been a blood sport ever since it gained independence from Pakistan in 1971, with factional leaders tossing each other in jail and finding various ways to justify authoritarian rule. Hasina’s admirers credited her with improving national infrastructure, creating educational opportunities for women, and nourishing vital industries. Critics noted she was nevertheless an authoritarian with a penchant for silencing dissidents, punishing the opposition, and rigging elections. Her apologists said her tragic family history made her understandably paranoid about being overthrown in a coup, while her detractors accused her of cynically exploiting her backstory for political gain.
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Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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