Bangladeshi Student Protesters Reject Calls For Early Election, Contemplate New Political Party

Student protesters who successfully removed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from power have dismissed appeals from Bangladesh’s two leading political parties for immediate elections. Instead, they are contemplating establishing their own political party to solidify the reforms they’ve initiated, according to interviews with four of the movement’s leaders.

Their aim is to prevent a recurrence of the last 15 years, during which Hasina ruled the nation of approximately 170 million people with an authoritarian grip.

This political shift began in June when a small group of students, mostly in their early-to-mid-20s, started organising protests against a law that allocated prized government jobs to specific groups.

In a matter of weeks, Hasina’s government was toppled by a wave of public outrage over the harsh repression of anti-quota protesters. The violence, which claimed at least 300 lives, was the deadliest since Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

The movement was celebrated as a Gen Z uprising, driven by young Bangladeshis’ frustration over years of stagnant job growth, accusations of corruption, and diminishing civil liberties.

An interim government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus and including two student leaders in high-ranking positions, is now in charge of the country.

For most of the past 30 years, Bangladesh has been governed either by Hasina’s Awami League or the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by her rival Khaleda Zia, both of whom are in their seventies.

Mahfuj Alam, the chairman of a committee that facilitates communication between the government and various social groups like teachers and activists, stated that student leaders are discussing the formation of a political party to end this duopoly.

Alam, a 26-year-old law student, told Reuters that a decision would be made in about a month and that the leaders wanted to engage in broad consultations with the general public before finalising their platform.

The details of the students’ plans for their movement’s political future have not been previously reported.

“People are fed up with the two main political parties. They trust us,” Alam said, speaking from the gates of Dhaka University’s Arts Faculty.

Tahmid Chowdhury, another student leader involved in Hasina’s ouster, indicated that there is a strong possibility they would form a political party. However, he mentioned they are still developing their program, though it would emphasise secularism and free speech.

“We don’t have any other strategy that could disrupt the political binary without forming a party,” said Chowdhury, a 24-year-old graduate student in world religions.

The student leaders in the interim government have not yet outlined specific policies but have emphasised the need for broad institutional changes, such as overhauling the electoral commission, which was handpicked by Hasina, to prevent the return of authoritarian rule.

“The movement’s essence was to build a new Bangladesh where no dictator or autocrat can reemerge,” said Nahid Islam, a 26-year-old protest organiser who is now a member of Yunus’ cabinet. “To ensure that, we need structural reforms, which will undoubtedly take time.”

The interim government is not entertaining calls from the Awami League and BNP for early elections as soon as this fall, according to Islam, who is in charge of telecommunications in the new administration.

The regime change has resulted in the removal of the chief justice, the central bank governor, the police chief responsible for the crackdown on the students, and other officials.

A spokesperson for Yunus, who has expressed little interest in holding an elected office, did not respond to requests for comment. Touhid Hossain, a seasoned diplomat now acting as Yunus’ de facto foreign minister, told Reuters that the students had not yet discussed their political ambitions with the technocrats.

However, Hossain noted that “the political landscape will inevitably shift because we have largely sidelined the younger generation from politics.”

Yunus, an 84-year-old economist renowned for his microcredit initiatives that have lifted millions out of poverty globally, holds significant moral influence, but there are concerns about the effectiveness of his administration.

“We are navigating uncharted territory, both legally and politically,” said Shahdeen Malik, a constitutional expert. “The powers of this interim government are not clearly defined, as there is no constitutional framework for it.”

Reuters interviewed over 30 individuals, including key student leaders, Hasina’s son and adviser Sajeeb Wazed, opposition politicians, and military officers, to evaluate the divisions left by the protests and the prospects for the new government.

Hasina, whose son mentioned that she hopes to return to Bangladesh, could not be reached for comment.

“The political parties aren’t going anywhere. You can’t erase us,” Wazed told Reuters from the United States, where he currently resides. “Eventually, either the Awami League or the BNP will return to power. Without our support, without our base, you won’t be able to bring stability to Bangladesh.”

NANCY MBAMALU 

Source: Reuters

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