Will Bangladesh PM seek common ground with opposition who deem system destined to work against them?

Will Bangladesh PM seek common ground with opposition who deem system destined to work against them?

Meanwhile polling has closed the Bangladesh elections the incumbent prime minister shik Hena projected to win a fifth term in office the opposition boycotting the vote telling voters to stay home the election was preceded by violence the burning of several polling stations and clashes between protesters and police the turnout has been low to

And the opposition parties say the result will be skewed the ruling party of the Amara League declared them free and fair let’s get some context on what’s been going on there and bring in uh Michael kouman the south Asia director at the Wilson Center in Washington good to see you Michael first

Of all just set out for us the extent to which the opposition have an argument I understand that the UN have described the situation there as a repressive um situation leading up to the elections particularly regards to a lack of free speech well the opposition had a very

Strong argument uh that the playing field was not level for the election uh really just in the the last few weeks before the election uh there was a major Crackdown that came after uh opposition protest turned violent at the end of October and um going into election day

Uh most of the opposition’s top leaders were in jail and they’re still in jail and thousands of opposition supporters are in jail as well um not only that if you go back uh the last few years the opposition had faced significant levels of Crackdown through harassment uh arrests jailings um uh uh online

Security laws have been exploited to go after those that were critical of the government uh online so it’s just been a very difficult um State of Affairs for the opposition and uh at the end of the day it it makes sense given that they decided to run but for the for the

Opposition pardon me makes sense that they decided not to to contest the elections but the big issue here is that the last elections in 2018 the opposition did participate in them and those elections were widely viewed as rigged with the ruling party getting about 90 5% of the votes and I think

That was a lesson for the opposition They concluded that they made a mistake participating in a system that they believe is destined to work against them that’s another reason why they didn’t participate in this year’s election So it’s talking about 14 or so schools polling stations across the country that

Were burnt a fire on a train uh a number of people died and some opposition uh politicians called in for questioning over that arrested at the same time what did the opposition want am I right to say they wanted some kind of interim government for the government to basically step aside before the

Elections just explain what it was that would would have brought the opposition back to the table right I mean the the core demand for the opposition from day one has been uh the restoration of a caretaker clause which essentially entails a neutral government coming in um to oversee the

Preparation for elections and in the opposition’s view so long as the current government was in power there couldn’t be free and fair elections and there had indeed been a caretaker Clause um in in Bangladesh uh until 2011 which happened to be the first term of the current government uh the Supreme Court ruled

That it was illegal but keep in mind that it was the current ruling party that was in power then and at that point after the Supreme Court declared it illegal uh the uh the parliament dominated by the aami league back then uh basically set it back got rid of that

Caretaker Clause but the view of the opposition is that you need to bring it back and in fact the current ruling party when it was in the opposition in the past had also supported the idea of a caretaker Clause but clearly the the government in Bangladesh was not going

To get into that demand and this is why we are where we are now that the opposition had said from the start that it would not participate in elections until and unless that uh that neutral government Clause is brought back you’ve heard we’ve heard today from shik Hina the Prime Minister she spoke

To the Press fairly combative mood saying that the other groups the BMP party the position was a terrorist group do you sense that you she has support in her accusations uh no I mean this is she’s referring to the the main opposition the uh the BNP party which is certainly not

A a terrorist group uh I think the concern is that um there the the allies and the uh the the partners that the B&P has had over the years uh including uh the islamist party uh um jamaat Islam there have been some concerns about some ties to terrorist groups from them but

Uh formally at least the main opposition the BNP is not allied with these um with these other parties but indeed there are indications including over the last few months that the main opposition has stage violence you know I noted before at the end of October there was an opposition protest that turned violent

There have been a series of cases I think a few were mentioned by you earlier uh Trains being set on fire and there’s good reason to think that the main opposition has been behind them uh there been some some strikes that have been staged by the main opposition which

Is entailed cutting off traffic so there’s been disruptions and one could argue destabilizing actions taken by the main opposition as well but that’s a far cry from from like from from from it being a terrorist group so this is a case I think of of the Prime Minister

Know trying to demonize um the the main opposition and and essentially make it look bad Michael good to talk to you Michael koulman South Asia Institute director at the Wilson Center in Washington

Stabilising a fractious political landscape and fixing an economy still reeling from the ripple effects of the Russia-Ukraine war should top Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s agenda for her next five-year term, analysts said on Monday. Hasina, 76, secured a fourth straight term as expected with her party winning almost 75% of seats in Sunday’s general election amid low turnout in the vote boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). During her 15 years in power, Hasina has been credited with turning around the economy and the country’s massive garments industry, though critics have also accused her of human rights violations, and suppressing free speech and dissent. Improving the economy would, again, be the main aim for the next five years, Hasina said on Monday. While analysts say economic reforms are urgently needed they also stress that before Hasina’s government can proceed, the ruling party and the opposition need to reach some form of an understanding to end the political unrest.As Bangladesh PM faces a tougher, more uncertain new term, FRANCE 24 is joined by Michael Kugelman, Asia Program Deputy Director and Senior Associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC.

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