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Bangladesh - Politics

In December 1990, following mass demonstrations, President Hossain Ershad resigned and was put under house arrest. During 1991 he was convicted of illegal possession of firearms and other offences and sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment. In the February 1991 elections the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won 138 of 300 seats and Begum Khaleda Zia was confirmed as the country’s first woman prime minister. The main opposition was the Awami League and its allies, with 95 seats. A national referendum then endorsed a return to parliamentary democracy with a non-executive president. In 1991 a cyclone devastated the south-east coast, killing an estimated 138,000 people.

Political tensions mounted and opposition demands for fresh elections became more strident until 1994, when the entire parliamentary opposition resigned and intensified its campaign of mass demonstrations and general strikes. The president finally dissolved parliament in November 1995 and in the first elections in February 1996, the Awami League, Jatiya Party and Jamaat-e-Islami boycotted the poll and the BNP took the majority of votes cast. The opposition parties renewed their campaign and paralysed the country causing severe damage to the economy. In March 1996, the government agreed to the appointment of a neutral caretaker government to oversee the holding of fresh elections. Begum Zia resigned and parliament was dissolved.

In the parliamentary elections that followed in June 1996, the Awami League gained 146 of the 300 elective seats, the BNP 116, Jatiya Party 32 and Jamaat-e-Islami three. An informal alliance with the Jatiya Party allowed the Awami League to gain control of the majority of seats in parliament and Sheikh Hasina became prime minister, with Begum Zia’s BNP now the main opposition which soon began a new campaign of strikes and street protests and a series of long parliamentary boycotts. In 1997 Ershad was released from prison and in March 1998 the Jatiya Party left the ruling coalition. The Awami League, which as a result of a number of by-elections now had an absolute majority, continued on its own. In 1998 the country was again devastated by floods which covered nearly two-thirds of the land area.

Following a very violent campaign, in October 2001, the four-party alliance led by the BNP won a surprise landslide victory; the BNP took 191 seats and its largest ally the Jamaat-e-Islami 18, while the Awami League trailed with 62 and the Islamic National Unity Front, which included a faction of the Jatiya Party led by Ershad, took 14.

Although international observers declared the general election to be largely free and fair and both the head of the caretaker government and the chief election commissioner rejected the Awami League’s allegation of massive vote-rigging, Sheikh Hasina called for the elections to be run again, threatening mass protests and a parliamentary boycott, which had characterised opposition politics during previous administrations. The Awami League subsequently returned to parliament and assumed its role as opposition.

The political temperature remained very high in 2003. In June 2003 the Awami League began a boycott of parliament, which continued until June 2004. During 2004 the opposition called 21 general strikes as part of a campaign to oust the government.

In October 2006, a general election was called for January 2007 and President Iajuddin Ahmed formed a caretaker government. In early January 2007, it was confirmed that the Awami League and other smaller opposition parties were to boycott the election on the belief that the interim government and election commission were biased. Following national transport blockades put in place by Awami League led supporters who wanted the election postponed and ensuing riots, a state of emergency was issued and President Ahmed postponed the election, stood down as chief adviser of the interim government and was succeeded by Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed, former central bank governor. The new chief adviser of the Non-Party Caretaker Government quickly formed a new council of advisers to run his administration. The Election Commission subsequently spelt out a road map focusing on electoral reform, including new voter photo identity cards, with a view to holding elections by the end of 2008.