Bangladesh polls test Hasina legacy in her home region
Absence of former ruling party Awami League in its stronghold highlights voter alienation and shifting loyalties after Hasina’s removal
DHAKA, Bangladesh (MNTV) — In Gopalganj, the district long treated as an electoral extension of state power under Sheikh Hasina, the symbols of one-party dominance have disappeared.
For the first time in decades, the Awami League’s boat emblem — once inseparable from elections here — is absent from walls, posters and ballot papers ahead of Bangladesh’s Feb. 12 vote.
Its disappearance is not the result of a normal political transition, but of a system rupture. Hasina ruled Bangladesh for more than 15 consecutive years, presiding over elections repeatedly criticized for the arrest of opposition leaders, intimidation of voters and the effective hollowing out of electoral competition. Her rule ended in August 2024 after a youth-led uprising, forcing her into exile in India.
Following her removal, the Awami League was barred from contesting the election under an interim administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. The ban reflects accountability claims linked to last year’s violence, rather than a procedural exclusion of a democratic actor.
In Gopalganj — birthplace of Hasina and her father, Bangladesh’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — the change has exposed the depth of political damage left behind.
While posters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Jamaat-e-Islami and independent candidates now dominate public spaces, many former Awami League supporters say years of enforced loyalty have left them politically stranded.
“They can put up as many posters as they want,” said Ershad Sheikh, a rickshaw puller. “If there is no boat on the ballot paper, none of my family will vote.”
Such disengagement is widely viewed by analysts as a consequence of authoritarian rule rather than its absence. Under Hasina, political participation in strongholds like Gopalganj was shaped by fear, patronage and predetermined outcomes, leaving voters with little experience of competitive choice.
Hasina has argued that excluding her party disenfranchises supporters, but she faces a death sentence handed down by a Dhaka court over the 2024 crackdown. A United Nations assessment estimated up to 1,400 people were killed and thousands wounded during the unrest, largely by security forces — allegations she denies.
Recent voter surveys suggest that former Awami League supporters are not uniformly boycotting the election. Nearly half now indicate a preference for the BNP, while around 30% lean toward Jamaat-e-Islami, pointing to consolidation around opposition forces rather than democratic loss.
Still, the transition has carried a personal cost. Families linked to the former ruling party describe arrests, intimidation and withdrawal from public life. Shikha Khanam said her brother, a student wing activist, was arrested under anti-terrorism laws last December, prompting her family to abandon politics entirely.
Others view the election as a rare break from managed outcomes. “Before, votes were already decided,” said local businessman Sheikh Ilias Ahmed. “Now, for the first time, people may actually choose.”
Political analyst Asif Shahan of the University of Dhaka said the election’s significance lies not in nostalgia for a fallen regime, but in whether voters shaped by years of repression can re-engage meaningfully.
“The loyalists may abstain,” he said, “but undecided voters could still determine outcomes — even in places once treated as political property.”
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