Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina bans elections

Date:



Dhaka, Bangladesh
AP

Bangladesh’s election commission has cancelled the registration of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, preventing him from participating in the next general election, which is expected to be held by June next year.

The decision on Monday comes hours after the country’s interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammed Yunus issued an official notice banning the Awami League Party and its affiliates from operating online and elsewhere.

A formal notice from the Home Ministry was issued on Monday two days after the interim cabinet decided that the special court would ban all party activities under the state’s anti-terrorism law until the trial of the party and its leaders.

In the notice, the government said it had banned all activities “including all kinds of publications, media, online and social media” as well as “all kinds of campaigns, processions, meetings, meetings (or) meetings (or) meetings until the trials of leaders and activists are complete.”

He said the decision was soon effective.

Separately, the Election Commission said Monday that it would not allow the Hasina-led party to challenge the next election. Political parties must be registered with the Election Commission to participate in elections.

Government advisers said Monday that anyone who posted comments online in support of the Awami League party will face arrest.

On Sunday, the Awami League accused the interim government of trampling on “democratic norms” by banning the “stalking sector” and its activities. In a statement, the ban said “the vague divisions within society have strangled democratic norms, promoted ongoing pogroms against opponents, and strangled all undemocratic measures.”

The Awami League is one of the two major political parties in Bangladesh, with parliamentary democracy with a violent history of coups and political assassinations.

Hasina, daughter of Bangladeshi’s independent leader Sheikh Mujibour Rahman, fled the country on August 5th last year and has since been exiled in India along with many senior party colleagues and former cabinet rulers and lawmakers. They are accused of killing protesters during the uprising against Hasina’s 15-year regulations from July to August last year.

The UN Human Rights Office said in a February report that up to 1,400 people could have been killed during the three-week anti-hasina protests. However, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ office was recommended in a report that “we will effectively disenfranchise voters in large part, refraining from banning political parties that undermine a genuine multi-party return to democracy.”

The Awami League, which led a nine-month war with Pakistan for independence in 1971, has been under severe pressure since Hasina’s expulsion. Protesters attacked and ran around many offices, including Dhaka’s headquarters. It accuses the interim government of sponsoring mobs to attack the homes and businesses of their activists and leaders. Thousands of supporters have said they have been arrested across the country, and many have been killed.

Yunus said the next election is likely to take place in December or June next year.



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