'Sheikh Hasina Must Step Down': Ahead Of Bangladesh Elections 2024, Oppn BNP Demands PM's Resignation

Bangladesh Nationalist Party is pushing for the establishment of an interim "non-partisan neutral government" to supervise the general elections on January 7.

University students hold protest demanding an election under a caretaker government in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Source : Getty

Demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s “illegal government”, the principal Opposition party in, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has called for a 48-hour nationwide ‘hartal’, or strike,  beginning on Saturday ahead of the general elections set for January 7. According to ANI, the BNP led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has decided to boycott the general election scheduled for Sunday.

The party is pushing for the establishment of an interim non-partisan neutral government to supervise the election — a request that has been rejected by the government under Prime Minister Hasina.

The BNP will carry out processions and mass campaigns, and distribute leaflets against the polls across the country, as per ANI. Furthermore, the second day of the strike coincides with the election, amplifying global attention. The party’s Joint Senior Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi announced the programs on Thursday afternoon and stated that the hartal will begin at 6 am on Saturday and end at 6 am on Monday.

Like-minded parties are also going to observe the programmes simultaneously. 

The vice-chairman of the BNP Tarique Rahman defended the boycott. He has been at the helm of the largest Opposition party since his mother, two-time Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, was put under house arrest in 2018.

In his interview with the AFP, Rahman, 56, said it would be inappropriate to have his party participate in a vote with a “predetermined” outcome.

“Bangladesh is approaching another sham election,” he said in an email from London, where he has lived since 2008. Rahman said the odds against his BNP and dozens of other parties which joined the boycott had been overwhelmingly stacked against them by the ruling Awami League.

‘Sham Election’

This comes after an unusually high number of independent candidates deemed by the opposition as a tactic by the ruling party to validate what critics perceive as a one-sided sham vote. Among the 436 independent candidates, numerous lawmakers and members from PM Hasina's Awami League stand, marking the highest count of independent candidates since the 2001 election. The BNP has criticised the Awami League, alleging that they've supported "dummy" independent candidates in an effort to portray the election as credible, reported Reuters.

However, the Awami League has denied the accusation.

A three-time lawmaker for Awami League, Ranajit Kumar Roy, opted to run as an independent after presuming that the candidate chosen by his party would be disqualified due to a loan fraud case, although a court eventually allowed him to contest.

Close to 2,000 candidates are competing for the 300 directly elected parliament seats, however, the BNP is abstaining from participation after Hasina declined to step down. As a result, she is poised to begin her fourth consecutive five-year term.

Rahman accused Awami League of fielding “dummy” opposition candidates aligned with the ruling party to give the election a patina of legitimacy. This would create “an impression of competition even though all results are predetermined”, he said, according to AFP.