• Opposition parties such as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and others have boycotted the elections.
• Sheikh Hasina continues to be a polarising figure in contemporary Bangladesh.
Currently as this very article is being written, tens of millions of Bangladeshi voters are taking to the polls to vote. The victor of this political contest will indefinitely be none other than Bangladesh’s iron lady: Sheikh Hasina Wazid.
By all accounts Sheikh Hasina, leader of the Awami League (AL), is no stranger to the vitriol, showmanship, and flair of politics. As the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the nation’s founding father and first prime minister, politics was more than just a dinnertime discussion topic at the family table. Winning the 2024 general elections will be her fifth victory and her fourth win in a row.
Her electoral success has not been without criticism and unrest. Her lengthy tenure of 19 years in power has drawn the ire and censure of her political opponents who accuse her of initiating democratic backsliding and rigging elections in the country. Riots and arson attacks have taken place today leading to further unrest. Furthermore, Human Rights Watch has reported the innumerable disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture, and imprisonment of opposition politicians, journalists, or anyone who criticizes her leadership. Most controversially perhaps, she had economist and former Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohammad Yunis arrested ostensibly for corruption. Reporters Without Borders have also accused her of curbing press freedom in Bangladesh.
At the same time Ms. Hasina has simultaneously been the subject of much praise and celebration. For many she is an unrivaled trailblazer having been the longest serving female head of state in a largely male dominated society. In 2017, her government earned credit for permitting the entry of over one million Rohingya refugees who fled violent persecution in neighboring Myanmar. But her most notable achievements and political victories have come in the sphere of economic development. Her government has worked tirelessly to expand social security to marginalized strata of society such as destitute women, widows, disabled people, and the elderly. The end result of these ongoing reforms has led to the widespread decline in poverty.
In 2006, Bangladesh’s poverty rate sat at 41.5% and its rate of extreme poverty was 25.1%. By 2022, these figures dropped to 18.7% and 5.6% respectively. Bangladesh’s progress in reducing poverty has largely stemmed from burgeoning economic growth. In 2009 when Ms. Hasina began her second term in government Bangladesh’s GDP per capita was lower than that of Pakistan and India. Since then, Bengali GDP per capita has almost quintupled and today it sits above both Pakistan and India.
Such marked success in economic development has been particularly notable in the case of Bangladesh. The aftermath of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War between Pakistan and Bangladesh (formerly West Pakistan and East Pakistan) saw the destruction of most of Bangladesh’s infrastructure and resulted in the estimated death of 300,000 to 3 million civilians who perished in a brutal genocide.
Today, Bangladesh is still reeling from the economic impact of the covid recession. Inflation runs rampant and many are still living in unacceptable levels of poverty. Though her opposition has boycotted the election, Ms. Hasina seems unperturbed and looks set to continue her development agenda.
