Ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said from her place of exile in New Delhi that millions of supporters of Bangladesh’s Awami League will boycott next year’s general elections because the party has been barred from participating in the polls.
In a written response to Reuters, the 78-year-old Hasina said she would not return to Bangladesh under any government formed without including the Awami League, and that she intends to stay in India, where she fled in August 2024 following the student movement.
The interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, which has been in power since Hasina’s ouster, has pledged to hold elections in February next year.
In her email responses to Reuters, Hasina said that the ban on the Awami League is not only unjust but also harmful to the government itself.
She further said that the next government must have electoral legitimacy, that the Awami League has millions of supporters, and under the current circumstances, they will not vote. “If you want the political system to work, you cannot deprive millions of people of their right to vote,” she added.
