NEW DELHI/DHAKA, Oct 29:
Exiled former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has declared that millions of Awami League supporters will boycott Bangladesh’s upcoming national election, accusing the interim government led by Nobel laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus of silencing the country’s largest political force.
Speaking to Reuters from her exile in New Delhi, Hasina, 78, said she would not return to Bangladesh under any government formed without her party’s participation and would continue to stay in India, where she fled following the student-led uprising in August 2024 that ended her 15-year rule.
“The ban on the Awami League is not only unjust, it is self-defeating,” Hasina said in her first media comments since her ouster. “You cannot disenfranchise millions of people if you want a political system that works.”
The Election Commission suspended the Awami League’s registration in May, citing national security threats and war crimes investigations against senior party figures. The Yunus-led interim government has promised to hold elections in February 2025, which analysts say the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is poised to win.
Hasina rejected any suggestion that her supporters might back rival parties. “We still hope common sense will prevail and we will be allowed to contest the election ourselves,” she said, adding that no back-channel talks were underway with the current administration to lift the ban.
Once credited with transforming Bangladesh’s economy, Hasina now faces charges of crimes against humanity before the International Crimes Tribunal, accused of ordering a violent crackdown on student protests in mid-2024 that left up to 1,400 people dead, according to a United Nations report. Thousands were injured, most from gunfire by security forces, marking the worst violence since the 1971 war of independence.
Hasina has dismissed the tribunal proceedings as “a politically motivated charade”, claiming she was denied fair notice or an opportunity to defend herself. “They’ve been brought by kangaroo courts, with guilty verdicts a foregone conclusion,” she said. A verdict is expected on November 13.
Despite her exile, Hasina said the Awami League would eventually return to Bangladesh’s political stage, even if not under her family’s leadership. Her son and adviser, Sajeeb Wazed, based in Washington, had earlier suggested he might consider leading the party if asked.
“It’s really not about me or my family,” Hasina said. “For Bangladesh to achieve the future we all want, there must be a return to constitutional rule and political stability. No single person or family defines our country’s future.”
Now living quietly in New Delhi, Hasina has been spotted occasionally in public — including a recent sighting at Lodhi Garden, where she was accompanied by two personal security guards. “I would of course love to go home,” she said, “so long as the government there was legitimate, the constitution was being upheld, and law and order genuinely prevailed.”
Her departure last year triggered targeted attacks and reprisals against Awami League workers, though the streets have since calmed. Still, clashes erupted earlier this month during the signing of a state reform charter, reflecting Bangladesh’s fragile stability ahead of next year’s vote.
