"Tarique Rahman, who after 17 years in exile is the main contender to be the next prime minister of Bangladesh, has pledged to end entrenched corruption and put the country on a new path as voting began in the first free and fair elections in almost two decades. Speaking to the Guardian before polls opened on Thursday morning, Rahman promised a new era of clean politics, including a top down, no tolerance approach to graft, if his Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) was brought to power."
"The elections are the first since the fall of autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina in the summer of 2024. The student-led uprising that toppled Hasina after 15 years in power left an estimated 1,400 people dead according to the UN, after it was met with a ruthless and violent crackdown by the state. Last year, the former prime minister now exiled in India was found guilty of crimes against humanity committed during the final days of her rule and sentenced to death."
Tarique Rahman returns from 17 years in exile as the main contender to be prime minister, pledging a top-down, no-tolerance campaign against entrenched corruption if the BNP takes power. Polls indicate the BNP will win a sizeable majority over Jamaat e-Islami, returning the party after two decades. The elections follow the summer 2024 fall of Sheikh Hasina after a student-led uprising that left about 1,400 dead amid a violent state crackdown. Hasina was later convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death. The Awami League faces accusations of rigging prior elections and repressing BNP opponents, leaving the economy damaged and political institutions weakened.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]