Bangladesh set for an opposition-less House

DHAKA: While Sheikh Hasina is set to begin her third consecutive term as Bangladesh’s prime minister following a landslide election victory, critics say having such an overwhelming majority in parliament could create space for her to become even more authoritarian. The Hasina-led coalition won 288 seats in the 300-seat parliament in Sunday’s election, amid allegations by the opposition that the voting was rigged. Hasina rejected the accusations.

The new Cabinet is expected to be sworn in by January 10, but members of the opposition alliance, which won only seven seats, said they would not take the oath. According to legal and parliament experts, a party needs to win at least 10% of the total seats to formally get the status of an opposition party. In response, the ruling party’s general secretary said by-elections would be held for those seats.

Over her last 10 years as PM, Hasina took up many development projects, from power generation to the building of a seaport, but her record of maintaining human rights was widely criticised by rights groups. Some of those critics now say her new government could be even more iron-handed and aggressive.

More than a dozen people were killed in election-related violence on Sunday, and the election campaign was dogged by allegations of the arrests and jailing of thousands of Hasina’s opponents. Dozens of activists took to the streets of Dhaka on Tuesday to protest the alleged gang rape by Hasina supporters of a mother of four who had voted for the opposition.

“Sheikh Hasina’s government during its previous term displayed an increasingly authoritarian streak,” Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director for Human Rights Watch, adding that she doubted that the next government would be more tolerant.