Hat-trick for Hasina

Bangladesh's one-sided poll result poses new challenges

It did not take long for the results of the general election in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh to become clear: It was a landslide in favour of the ruling Awami League, which won a record third consecutive term, taking, along with its allies, 288 of the country’s 298 parliamentary seats on offer. The opposition coalition, led by the Bangladesh National Party, or BNP, was nearly wiped out. When the result was so one-sided, the exact numbers barely matter.

But, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's so complete a victory has strengthened the argument of those who argue that the elections were a forced walkover — that use of the state machinery compromised the integrity of the electoral process. The next days and weeks will be crucial. If Ms Hasina is not in fact as overwhelmingly popular as the results would suggest, then it is hard to see how there will not be widespread opposition on the streets to her continued reign as Bangladesh’s supremo. For that is, surely, what she is now: An autocrat whose rule has been authorised by plebiscite, in a familiar pattern from the 20th century.
 

Many in New Delhi will be relieved that the BNP is not returning to power in Dhaka, and for good reason. The last time it was in power, under Ms Hasina’s great rival Begum Khaleda Zia, the implications for regional security were severe. An alliance — part opportunistic and part ideological — with the most obscurantist elements within Bangladeshi society and politics caused the BNP government to become a thorn in New Delhi’s side. The Hasina government's tough stance against Islamist terrorism is vital to India’s security interests in the Northeast. But that does not mean that India should be overjoyed by this turn of events. A stable Bangladesh is in India’s interests — but so is a liberal, democratic Bangladesh.

Ms Hasina has much to congratulate herself on. Under her government’s stewardship, Bangladesh’s economic growth has accelerated, and it almost touched 8 per cent last financial year. The country has human development indicators that outperform its income level, and a thriving garment exports sector. Under her watch, Bangladesh is on course to graduating from a least developed country to a middle-income nation. Poverty has been brought down to around 20 per cent and nearly 90 per cent of the country's 165 million people now have access to electricity.

Yet the challenges she will face in her next term will be severe. She will have to diversify Bangladesh’s economy and its export basket. Efforts are also required to building more resilient or transparent public institutions. She must also seize the opportunity provided by this mandate to renew the vibrancy of multi-party democracy in her country. A strong government needs a competent opposition to hold it to account if the country is not to be destabilised. Bangladesh’s successes mean that its national story has emerged from the dark days of the 1970s and 1980s. It is time that its politics, too, left old tragedies behind.