Bangladesh political turmoil: A who’s who guide

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - DHAKA, May 23 — Bangladesh has been in political turmoil since a student-led revolt forced then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina to flee last year, ending her 15-year iron-fisted rule.

Rival parties have repeatedly brought the streets of the capital Dhaka to a standstill with a string of competing demands.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who leads the caretaker government as its chief advisor until elections, was reported to have threatened to quit this week if political parties did not give him their full support.

Political parties and power brokers in the Muslim-majority nation of some 170 million people range from student activists, Islamist politicians to the army.

Interim government

Microfinance pioneer Yunus, 84, returned from exile in August 2024 at the behest of protesters.

Yunus says the caretaker administration he heads has a duty to implement democratic reforms before elections.

The timing of polls therefore depends on how much change the political parties can agree on.

He has promised the elections could be held as early as December, and at the latest by June 2026.

Bangladesh last held elections in January 2024, when Hasina won a fourth term in the absence of genuine opposition parties.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)

The BNP, the party of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, is widely tipped to win elections.

The BNP has protested against the government, demanding Yunus set an election date and has made a raft of other demands, including the sacking of multiple members of Yunus’s cabinet.

The party has demanded an election as soon as December.

Zia, 79, led the South Asian nation twice but was jailed for corruption in 2018 during Hasina’s tenure.

After Hasina’s fall, she was released from house arrest and travelled abroad for medical care, returning this month to cheering supporters.

But her son Tarique Rahman, 59, who has lived in London since 2008 after being sentenced in absentia under Hasina — convictions since quashed — is expected to return to lead the party in polls.

Students

Opposing the BNP is the National Citizen Party (NCP), made up of many of the students who spearheaded the uprising against Hasina.

Leader Nahid Islam, 27, was one of the most visible faces of the youth-led protest campaign, before joining the government.

In February, he resigned to form the NCP.

The NCP had sought to position itself as open to all people seeking to bring forward the spirit of last year’s uprising.

But as divisions widen between competing groups, rivals see it as too close to Yunus.

They would like a later election to allow time for reforms.

Islamists

Hasina took a tough stand against Islamist movements, sentencing several of their leaders to death.

Since she fled, groups have become emboldened.

They include Hefazat-e-Islam — an influential pressure group made up of multiple political parties, organisations and religious schools.

Jamaat-E-Islami, the largest Islamist political party, has also protested against the government — demanding the abolishment of a women’s commission seeking equality.

Religious relations have been turbulent, sparking worries among minorities including Muslim Sufis and Hindus — who account for less than a tenth of the population.

Awami League

Hasina’s Awami League, the country’s oldest political party, played a key role in Bangladesh’s liberation war from Pakistan in 1971.

The government banned it on May 12 pending trials of Hasina and other key leaders.

But what was once the country’s most popular party retains core supporters.

Hasina, 77, is in self-imposed exile in India, defying an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity related to the police crackdown that killed at least 1,400 protesters as she clung to power.

Army

In a country with a long history of military coups, the army has a powerful role.

It was the army who played a decisive factor in the ending of Hasina’s rule — after the generals decided not to step in to quash the protests.

They retain policing duties on the streets.

It was army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman who announced that Hasina had been overthrown, with the military taking brief control, before handing over to Yunus.

Bangladeshi newspapers reported that Waker-Uz-Zaman yesterday said that elections should be held by December — aligning with BNP demands.

International players

Regional neighbours play a powerful role.

Bangladesh, largely encircled by land by India, has seen relations with Hasina’s old ally New Delhi turn icy.

Yunus’s first state visit was to China, while Bangladesh has also moved closer to Pakistan, India’s arch-enemy.

Bangladesh, the world’s second largest garment manufacturer, is also eying the potentially dire impact of punishing US tariffs of 37 per cent if a deal is not struck in coming weeks. — AFP