Exiled former Prime Minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina has condemned the recent election, excluding her party, as illegitimate and warned of national decline under the current leadership.
Those who have come to power through this election were previously associated with militancy, grenade attacks, bombings, and repeated corruption scandals in 2001-06, she said while speaking at a virtual meeting recently.
Her comments came amid US-China tension over Dhaka’s controversial trade deal with Washington, struck by the Yunus-led regime.
Sheikh Hasina said that the election was marred by blatant vote-rigging. “Ballot boxes were stuffed with pre-stamped ballots from the evening before polling day. This was an illegitimate election held under an illegally installed regime. I do not know what these people can give to the country when a huge section of the population has been deprived of their voting rights, constitutional rights, and state rights.”
She questioned how a nation could progress when more than 50% of its voters were effectively disenfranchised. “An election that excludes the Awami League and deprives over half the electorate can never be legitimate,” she asserted. “An election under an illegitimate government remains illegitimate.”
Sheikh Hasina reiterated that Dr. Muhammad Yunus seized power through a “meticulously designed” plan. She lamented that the country, which had turned into an economically prosperous and peaceful nation in 15 years, was reduced to ruins in just one year.
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“Bangladesh, once on the path to becoming a development role model, is now begging for mercy from others,” she said. “All our economic achievements, businesses, and trades have been completely destroyed.”
Defending her party’s record, Sheikh Hasina asked rhetorically: “What is the crime of the Awami League? We brought independence, eradicated poverty, established people’s rights, and ensured peace and security. Was that our crime?” She also highlighted her government’s foreign policy of “friendship to all, malice to none.”
Previously, she said that her government had effective relations with all the superpowers, including the US, Japan, Russia, China and India, even though there are conflicts among those countries. Moreover, before the July riots, she said that the US wanted her permission to exert authority in the Bay of Bengal, keeping a base at Saint Martin’s Island, pushed for signing defense deals and an unsolicited allocation of deep-sea blocks, and wanted to worsen relations with its rivals, Russia and China.
Speaking at the virtual event, Sheikh Hasina expressed unwavering confidence in the Bangladeshi people. “Even after so much slander, propaganda, and persecution, surveys and elections consistently show that around 53% of voters support the Awami League,” she said.
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“The people want the Awami League because they know only the Awami League can change their fate, improve their quality of life, provide security, and deliver economic prosperity.”
She highlighted ongoing repression, stating that countless Awami League leaders, workers, students, teachers, lawyers, journalists, and intellectuals had faced torture, murder, and destruction of homes and businesses. “No one has been spared,” she said. “We never wanted Bangladesh to reach this state.”
Looking ahead, Sheikh Hasina struck an optimistic note: “This darkness will pass. The people of Bangladesh will rise again with pride. The blood of martyrs is never in vain. Insha’Allah, we will once again build the golden Bengal dreamed of by the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.”
She concluded by extending Ramadan greetings to the nation, paying tribute to the Language Movement martyrs, and reaffirming her belief in a peaceful, developed, and globally respected Bangladesh. “Bangladesh will become a role model of development,” she declared. “The day will return. Joy Bangla. Joy Bangabandhu.”
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