Under Sh. Hasina’s once-poor country has enjoyed tremendous economic growth, but her government has been accused of human rights abuses and ruthless silencing of dissent.
„[Valdančioji partija] Awami League has won the election,” announced Moniruzzaman Talukder, general secretary of the Election Commission.
Sh. Hasina on Monday dismissed criticism from the opposition over what the latter said was an unfair general election.
“The election was free and fair,” she told reporters in her first public comments after the vote, stressing that “those who want to criticize can criticize.”
The election took place on Sunday, and initial reports indicated that voter turnout was only around 40 percent.
According to M. Talukder, Sh. Hasina’s party won 223 seats in parliament. But the support of other MPs, including from pro-incumbency parties, means the prime minister will effectively control even more of the 300 seats in parliament, analysts say.
“It’s a one-party parliament,” Ali Riaz of Illinois State University told AFP. The analyst added that only Awami League allies were allowed to contest the elections.
Without credible opposition
The Jatiya party, which won 11 seats, is a long-time ally of the Awami League, as are many of the 61 independent candidates, said Mubashar Hasan, a political scientist at the University of Oslo.
“These elections have legitimized one-party rule in the country without a credible and effective opposition in parliament,” Hasan told AFP. “Almost all independent candidates who have won seats in parliament are also part of the Awami League.”
Among the winners is Bangladesh cricket team captain Shakib al Hasan, who won a seat in the ruling party.
Opposition activists staged a protest in Dhaka on Monday, wearing black gags to show their opposition to the election.
Sh. Hasina’s party has had almost no significant challengers, but has avoided fielding candidates in multiple constituencies, presumably to avoid calling parliament a one-party institution.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), whose ranks have been thinned by mass arrests, called a general strike and along with dozens of others refused to take part in what they said were rigged elections.
76 year old Sh. Hasina, after casting her vote on Sunday, urged citizens to show faith in the democratic process and called the BNP a terrorist organisation.
“Absolute Victory”
Tarique Rahman, the leader of the BNP, who left for Great Britain, called the election results a shame for Bangladesh’s democratic aspirations on social networks. He claimed to have seen disturbing photos and footage to back up his claims.
Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Sunday that the Bangladeshi government had failed to convince opposition supporters that the election would be fair. M. Ganguly warned that many fear further repression.
Envoys from China, Russia and neighboring India were among the first to greet Sh. Hasina when they visited her at her home on Monday. Envoys called her victory absolute, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
Chinese Ambassador Yao Wen (Yao Wen) in a statement praised the long-standing friendship with Dhaka and highlighted the 15 years of Sh. Hasina’s rule strengthened the ties between the countries.
170 million The politics of populous Bangladesh has long been dominated by the rivalry between the daughter of the country’s first leader, Sh. Hasina and Khaleda Zia, the wife of the former military governor who served two terms as prime minister.
In 2009, Sh. Hasina suffered no further defeats, but the two subsequent elections were marred by widespread irregularities and allegations of fraud.
78-year-old Kh. Zia was convicted of bribery in 2018 and is now in a hospital in Dhaka due to poor health. BNP leader T. Rahman is her son.
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2024-07-05 12:35:15