For years, Bangladesh’s opposition parties didn’t have much of a presence on the streets during elections. They either boycotted the polls or were pushed to the side by mass arrests of prominent officials. Now, before the vote on Thursday, the roles have switched.
Many young people who helped overthrow Hasina’s administration in a 2024 rebellion argue that the next ballot will be the first competitive election in the Muslim-majority country since 2009, when she began a 15-year rule.
Most people think the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) would win, but a coalition led by the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami is putting up a strong fight. A new party led by Gen-Z activists under 30 has joined forces with Jamaat after failing to turn its anti-Hasina street protests into an electoral basis.
Analysts say that the February 12 vote needs to have a clear winner, not a split result, in order to bring stability back to the country of 175 million people. After Hasina was ousted, there were months of unrest that hurt major industries, including the garment sector, which is the world’s second-largest exporter.
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