Bangladesh, the world's eighth-most populous nation, is moving toward single-party authoritarianism. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the center-left Awami League, has employed four tactics to marginalize rival politician Begum Khaleda Zia, the chairwoman of the center-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
First, in 2013, the Supreme Court under Hasina's administration banned Jamaat-e-Islami — the country's largest religious party and an ally of the BNP — from participating in elections on the grounds that the party's charter is illegal. Second, Hasina instituted the International War Crimes tribunal, a court charged with prosecuting crimes committed during the 1971 Bangladesh war for independence, which left an estimated 300,000 to 3 million people dead. Jamaat-e-Islami's leader, Atiur Rahman, was accused of leading an anti-nationalist militia during the war that was responsible for the deaths of scores of people, and since December 2013, four senior party members have been hanged in trials that have been criticized as being unfair. Third, Hasina took advantage of the BNP's boycott of the January 2014 elections, ensuring an Awami League victory and granting her a monopoly on legislation. And fourth, Hasina's government is pressing charges against various high-ranking BNP members as well as influential members of the media. In January, for example, Zia was charged with sedition because she questioned the death toll figures from the 1971 independence war.
Hasina has made the political calculation that if she can sustain the country's 6 percent rate of growth while creating jobs, reducing poverty and increasing health care access, then the electorate will overlook single-party rule and reward the Awami League during the 2018 elections. And despite some public unrest, she has had success. Under Hasina's administration, inflation has fallen, debt and poverty have been reduced, and foreign exchange reserves have spiked. Even so, until Hasina can lower government deficits and debt accumulation, draw greater foreign direct investment and implement infrastructure development, economic growth will fall short of the administration's target of 7.3 percent. However, because the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami have been marginalized, their power to launch protests or nationwide strikes to dent the economy will continue to be restricted.
