Daily Times

Bangladesh’s main opposition party will boycott the next general election if Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina does not make way for a neutral government to conduct the poll, two party leaders said, amid a crackdown on opposition politicians and deadly protests.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), whose top leadership is either jailed or in exile, is betting that if Hasina does not resign and allow in a caretaker government, boycotting the January election will de-legitimise any win for her and possibly invite international sanctions, one of the leaders said.

It boycotted the 2014 election too but participated in 2018.

The United States, the top buyer of Bangladeshi garments, said in May it was implementing a policy allowing for the restriction of visas to Bangladeshis who undermine the democratic election process in the country of nearly 170 million people.

“BNP and the opposition political parties will not go to a fake election,” Abdul Moyeen Khan, a former minister and member of the BNP’s highest policy-making body, told Reuters on Wednesday.

“We will not legitimise a fake election this government intends to conduct by participating in it.”

Zahir Uddin Swapon, a former BNP lawmaker, said Hasina’s government would be answerable to Western governments if she failed to resign and allow a free and fair election contested by all parties.