‘Dummy’ candidates, coerced voting: Inside Bangladesh’s election ‘charade’
Al JazeeraDec 30, 2023
Bangladesh Election: Hasina Wins Another Term
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Image copyright: Antonio Masiello/Getty Images News via Getty Images
The Facts
Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been re-elected after her Awami League party and its allies won 223 of 300 parliamentary seats in Sunday's election.
With a boycott from the main opposition party, independent candidates secured a total of 63, while the Jatiya Party, the third largest in the country, got 11 seats.
The Spin
Left narrative
While she will govern Bangladesh again, the facade of a stable Hasina government can't mask the intensifying political strife, economic crisis, human rights abuses, and the stifling of dissent. Hasina's fifth total term will, at best, lead to de-facto one-party rule in Bangladesh rather than end the political deadlock or restore democracy.
Right narrative
In the past 15 years, Sheikh Hasina has turned around Bangladesh's economy, which has tripled the country's per capita income and lifted over 25M people out of poverty. Her fifth term will provide much-needed political stability for Bangladesh, which spun into turmoil following COVID and a global economic slowdown.
