The South Asian nation heads to the polls on February 12, almost two years after the 2024 student-led uprising.
Students and other activists carry Bangladesh's national flag during a protest march in Dhaka, Bangladesh,
As Bangladesh prepares to hold its first elections since the overthrow of then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League party in 2024,https://www.effectivegatecpm.com/u4tq3wiki?key=a0dc0d64df3941bdedb59ef46e09f2a4 neighbours India, Pakistan and China are watching closely.
Bangladesh is currently being governed by an interim administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. The two main parties competing for power in this month’s polls are the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JIB), both of which began campaigning in late January.
The Awami League, which has historically had close ties with India, has been barred from these elections because of its role in the brutal crackdown on student-led protests in 2024. Hasina, 78, currently in exile in India, was found guilty of allowing lethal force to be used against protesters, 1,400 of whom died during the unrest.
She was tried in absentia by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in Bangladesh in November last year – and sentenced to death – but so far India has refused to extradite her.
Hasina has denounced the upcoming elections, telling The Associated Press news agency last month that “a government born of exclusion cannot unite a divided nation
Since her ousting, political analysts say, Bangladesh’s geopolitical positions have undergone a “paradigm shift”.
“Bilateral relations with India have witnessed a historic low in contrast to a warm rapprochement with Pakistan. Furthermore, strategic ties with China have deepened significantly,” Khandakar Tahmid Rejwan, lecturer of global studies and governance at the Independent University, Bangladesh, told Al Jazeera
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