Bangladeshi voters have handed the alliance led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina a landslide victory in the election held after two years of military-backed rule. Her alliance secured a two-thirds majority in the 300-member house. The voting Monday was the most peaceful in decades — a stark contrast to the failed elections of 2007, which dissolved into street riots and prompted emergency rule.
‘This has been a very free and fair election’ Election Commission Secretary Humayun Kabir told reporters at his office in the capital, Dhaka. The commission had some 20,000 observers monitoring the vote.
An international observer group also said the vote appeared to be fair. ‘The (election) process appears to have yielded a result that accurately reflects the will of Bangladeshi voters’, said Constance Berry Newman, the head of a 65-person delegation from the International Republican Institute, a Washington-based group that promotes democracy.
He added ‘political parties, candidates and citizens should accept the results and work together for a peaceful transition of power’.
The Begums of Bangladesh, as they are called, Hasina and Zia are heirs to Bangladeshi political dynasties and fixtures of the political scene. Zia was elected prime minister in 1991, Hasina in 1996, and Zia again in 2001. Both campaigned on similar platforms of reducing corruption and controlling inflation. One of the few policy differences is that Hasina’s party is seen as relatively secular and liberal, while Zia has allies among Islamic fundamentalists.
Hasina’s longer absence from power had also worked in her favor, together with Zia’s poor record in controlling inflation.
Dozens of former ministers in Zia’s government lost, including chief of the Islamic fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party, Motiur Rahman Nizami.
Like in other democratic countries, Hasina’s success or failure in her new innings will depend on what impact her first 100-days in office will make. She has to take a fresh look at a host of domestic and foreign policy issues. Taming inflation and ensuring food security top her agenda on the home scene.Hasina has promised to bring down food prices and reduce corruption. And according to Ataur Rahman, a professor of political science at Dhaka University, the ordinary people trust her more than Zia, whose rule is fresh in their memory. ‘They wanted to give Hasina another chance’, he opined.
Her foreign policy objectives will revolve round curbing overseas links of Islamists and revisiting the traditional policy of allowing official and unofficial export of human capital. This export has a bearing on Bangladesh’s relations with India, particularly the northeastern It is a volatile political issue in India and how Hasina handles it will be interesting to watch.
In the short to immediate run, she will have to put her best foot forward to fulfill her poll promise of clean, corruption free administration. She appears to be rather economical on the promise as of now going by her choice for key portfolios like for instance, Commerce.