Amid much festivity and enthusiasm, Bangladesh went through its 12th elections with almost 40 percent voter turnout amid the BNP’s continuous violence, boycott, and polls-day countrywide strike.
A total of 1,970 candidates contested in the polls, with 1,533 from 28 parties and 436 independents.
To foil this election, BNP-Jamaat executes a massive brutal campaign from October 28, 2023, which include strikes, blockades, arson attacks on public buses, tragic train attacks, attacks on law enforcers and judiciary system and extensive polls-time violence including attacking, burning polling stations, countrywide crude bombs blasts and etc.
You can also read: Sheikh Hasina Secures Historic Fifth Term Amidst Global Acclaim
Despite these hurdles, the democratic people of Bangladesh cast their votes on Sunday and mandate Sheikh Hasina for another term as the prime minister.
But some international media including AL Jazeera took anti-Bangladesh stances without any evidence and it tried to label Bangladesh’s election as ‘controversial’.
Why Sheikh Hasina Get the Nods to Rule the Country?
Bangladesh has witnessed massive economic and social development since 2009 under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. On the other hand, the so-called opposition, BNP took a strong role to oppose any of the development rather they resorted to brutal violence in 2008, 2014, 2018, and 2024. This series of anti-people activities eat up the party’s grassroots support.
In the last 15 years, Bangladesh’s per capita income increased 5 times, budget size increased 12 times and the Annual Development Program increased 13 times, GDP size increased 12 times, foreign exchange reserve increased 36 times, export earnings increased 5 times, annual remittance increased 6 times, foreign investment increased 5 times, wages of workers increased 9 times, foreign exchange reserve increased 36 times while export earnings increased 5 times.
The poverty rate declined from 41.51 percent to 18.7 percent while the extreme poverty rate reduced by 5 times between 2006 to 2023.
Drinking water coverage increased from 55 percent to 98.8 percent. Sanitary latrines increased from 43.28 percent to 97.32 percent. Infant mortality decreased from 84 per thousand to 21. Maternal mortality decreased from 360 per lakh to 156. The average human lifespan is 72.8 years now.
The Awami League government also completed several mega projects including the Padma Bridge, the Metrorail in Dhaka, the Elevated expressway, the Country’s first nuclear power plant at Rooppur, Bangabandhu Tunnel’ in Chattogram, Dhaka-Cox’s Bazar rail route, Bangabandhu Satellite-1 and many more.
These projects transformed Bangladesh into a more modern country and boost up Awami League’s popularity among the citizens.
Bangladesh’s economy has excelled in 2023 with a multifold growth compared to 2009. In 2009, the GDP was only 102 billion US dollars. In 2023, the GDP will increase to more than 450 billion US dollars.
Awami League’s social welfare and inclusive policies including Ashrayan Project, pension scheme, and allowances for needy people further consolidated its support bases at grassroots levels.
Why BNP Boycotted The 12th Election
BNP’s chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia is ailing for old-age complexations and stands discredited to contest in the polls for her corruption charges.
Her son also BNP’s current de facto leader Tarique Rahman is living a fugitive life in London since 2007 to avert trials for his widespread corruptions and grenade attack on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. He is also discredited for the elections.
So, as the duo could not participate in polls, so BNP’s joining in elections would have been a risky move for Tarique Rahman. If the BNP had contested the elections and won a proportion of seats, it would pose threat to Tarique’s autocratic leadership inside the party.
The party also relied on foreign meddling in Bangladesh’s elections, hoping that some Western party would give them the power to rule Bangladesh despite this is a democratic country and the election is the only way out to form the government.
Moreover, mass exodus of BNP’s senior leaders put BNP in leadership crisis while the series of violence reduced BNP’s popularity.
So, BNP boycotted the elections despite the government and the election commission’s repetitive calls to join the polls.
Flashback to 2014, 2018 elections
Following their defeat in the 2008 election, the BNP opted to boycott the 2014 election anticipating another loss. The party had consistently asserted its non-participation unless their demand for ‘caretaker government’ was met, leading to widespread unrest, including violent protests, shutdowns, strikes, transport blockades, and anti-election street campaigns.
The caretaker government lost its credibility during the one-eleven government in 2007.
The people’s movement compelled the caretaker government to hold immediate elections in 2008, resulting in Sheikh Hasina’s significant victory.
The Supreme Court later declared the caretaker government provision unconstitutional, rendering it obsolete.
The BNP’s street violence following the 2014 election announcement resulted in 153 deaths, causing disruptions to daily life and significant economic setbacks. Despite opposition efforts, including international mobilization, the election proceeded and nearly two dozen people were killed on the voting day of oppositions’ widespread violence.
In the 2018 elections, BNP joined the polls but the electorate of Bangladesh overwhelmingly rejected the party for its past violent history and corruption.
The party only secured 7 seats in the Jatiya Shangshad election.
The general elections on December 30, 2018, witnessed the Awami League-led Grand Alliance, under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina, achieving a resounding victory. Unfortunately, the election day itself was marred by violence orchestrated by the BNP and its affiliated political parties, leading to 18 fatalities and over 200 injuries on the election day itself.
Al Jazeera’s Stance Against Bangladesh Is Nothing New
AL Jazeera is widely known for its extremist religious ideologies.
So, as a radical Islamist agenda-based so-called news media, it’s not surprising that Al Jazeera takes a stake against the Sheikh Hasina government. The emergence of Bangladesh as a secular democratic country and the people’s refusal of the extremist BNP-Jamaat axis was unacceptable for Al Jazeera.
The one-sided media had conveniently underplayed Bangladesh’s descent into radical Islamist terrorism during the BNP-Jamaat’s regime but went hammer and tongs at the Sheikh Hasina government after it commissioned the 1971 War Crimes trials.
They made no secret of their agenda to malign the trials and became a safe haven for such agents and apologists of accused war criminals like British barrister and lobbyist Toby Cadman, controversial blogger and journalist David Bergman, and several other London based lawyer-activists of BNP and Jamaat E Islami. Its narrative was partial and largely based on the spin of the Jamaat lobbyists who tried to project the procedural shortcomings of the trials.
In one of their reports (“What’s behind Bangladesh’s war crimes trials?’), they stated that the number of people killed during the 1971 genocide was 300,000-500,000 when in reality, the official figures include three million killed, more than 200,000 women raped.
Even when the rabidly radical Hefazat-e-Islam called for an abrupt end to girls’ education and their cadres ran amok on the streets of Dhaka, Al Jazeera projected it as the Bangladesh version of the Arab Spring. It blew up the casualty toll during the police crackdown on Hefazat, basing the narrative on dubious human rights groups like Odhikar.
During the COVID outbreak in Bangladesh, Al Jazeera predicted a death toll of at least a million and a collapsing healthcare system. However, these predictions were misleading, as current deaths due to COVID-19 in Bangladesh remain under 10,000. Al Jazeera also alleged intentional underreporting of cases by the government. Despite these claims, Bangladesh emerged as a success story with high vaccination rates and lower death tolls, attributed to the strong leadership of Sheikh Hasina.
AJ drew parallels between the Rajapaksas and the Sheikh family in Bangladesh, which was intentionally misleading.
So, it is not unexpected that Al Jazeera is upset with the phenomenal success of Sheikh Hasina and its continuous anti-Bangladesh propaganda is nothing new.
There are credible allegations of instigating ‘regime change’ and violent agitation against AJ in various countries too. So far, India, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Jordan have all restricted/limited their broadcast in their territories.
