The country’s election campaign entered its final day ahead of the Feb 12 vote, as rival parties invoked the 2024 uprising that ended the autocratic rule of Sheikh Hasina.
Tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters have attended weeks of rival rallies across the sprawling capital Dhaka, as parties each seek to harness the legacy of the mass uprising – and pitch competing visions of change for the country of 170 million.
The South Asian nation will elect a new parliament, with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) – led by Tarique Rahman, who returned in December after 17 years in exile – widely tipped as a frontrunner.
The BNP’s Tarique led a rally on Sunday in Dhaka’s Mirpur neighbourhood – constituency of Shafiqur Rahman, the leader of his main rival, Jamaat-e-Islami.
“I can talk about him forever, but that won’t benefit the people of Bangladesh,” the BNP leader said about the Islamist chief, to crowds waving flags with the party symbol, a sheaf of rice.
A heavy deployment of armed police monitored the rally, with drones hovering above, as he backed the local BNP candidate Shafiqul Islam Milton.
“Help him win the election, and he will take care of you once elected,” Tarique told the BNP crowds.
Tarique, 60, better known in Bangladesh as Tarique Zia, assumed leadership of the BNP following the death of his mother, former prime minister Khaleda Zia, who died in December at the age of 80.
Hasina’s Awami League was banned by the interim government from running in the elections, a move criticised by rights groups.
Jamaat-e-Islami chief Shafiqur, meanwhile, addressed a packed rally in the Dhaka-11 constituency, a flashpoint during the Aug 5, 2024 uprising that toppled the Awami League government after 15 years in power.
Shafiqur, leading a coalition of Islamist parties – under the symbol of weighing scales – accused the former ruling party of widespread repression, but warned that new forms of abuse had quickly followed its fall.
“A section of the oppressed turned into oppressors just a day after Aug 5,” he said, alleging extortion and corruption by returning political figures.
“Common people, business owners – even beggars – are now fed up. Justice has been sent into exile.”
Jamaat, ideologically aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, and seeking a return to formal politics after years of bans and crackdowns, has allied with the National Citizen Party (NCP), formed by student leaders who spearheaded the uprising.
Hasina, 78, sentenced to death in absentia in November for crimes against humanity for the deadly crackdown on protesters, remains in hiding in India. — AFP
