NEW DELHI/DHAKA: (Oct 30) Bangladesh’s exiled former prime minister Sheikh Hasina has warned that banning her Awami League party from next year’s general elections would “disenfranchise millions” and risk pushing the country into deeper political turmoil.
In emailed interviews with Reuters and AFP, the 78-year-old leader now living in India dismissed the charges of crimes against humanity against her as “politically motivated,” saying she was being tried in “kangaroo courts with guilty verdicts a foregone conclusion.”
Hasina was ousted in August 2024 after a student-led uprising that left up to 1,400 people dead, according to the United Nations, making it Bangladesh’s deadliest internal unrest since independence.
The interim government, headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has scheduled elections for February 2026 but barred the Awami League under new amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act, citing national security and ongoing war crimes investigations into senior party leaders.
“The ban on the Awami League is not only unjust, it is self-defeating,” Hasina told Reuters. “Millions of people support the Awami League, so as things stand, they will not vote. You cannot disenfranchise millions of people if you want a political system that works.”
The Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) have long dominated the country’s politics. With the Awami League banned and its leaders facing prosecution, the BNP is widely expected to lead in next year’s polls. The Jamaat-e-Islami, previously outlawed, is also regaining influence.
Human Rights Watch called the ban “draconian,” warning it could deepen instability and undermine the credibility of the coming vote.
Hasina, who ruled Bangladesh for more than 15 years, faces accusations of ordering lethal force against demonstrators during the 2024 uprising. Prosecutors have played verified audiotapes in court that allegedly capture her instructing security forces to “use lethal weapons.”
Chief Prosecutor Tajul Islam said Hasina was “the nucleus around whom all the crimes were committed,” and has sought the death penalty if she is found guilty.
Hasina has refused to appear before the tribunal and has not appointed a legal defence. “These are politically motivated charges brought to erase the Awami League from Bangladesh’s future,” she told AFP, adding that she “mourned all the lives lost” but denied ordering the crackdown.
Her party has asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate what it calls “retaliatory violence” against its supporters, including reports of beatings and lynchings since her fall from power.
“The next government must have electoral legitimacy,” Hasina said. “We are not asking Awami League voters to support other parties. We still hope common sense will prevail and we will be allowed to contest the election ourselves.”