Exiled Bangladesh Leader Hasina Urges Boycott, Warns of Deep Divisions Ahead of 2026 Polls

Bangladesh’s fugitive former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has warned that barring her Awami League party from next year’s elections will deepen political divisions and trigger a mass voter boycott.

Now exiled in India, the 78-year-old former leader is being tried in absentia for crimes against humanity, following her ouster in August 2024 after a student-led uprising that the United Nations says left up to 1,400 people dead amid violent crackdowns.

The interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus has pledged to hold elections in February 2026, but under amendments to the antiterrorism act, it has banned the Awami League, citing national security concerns and ongoing war crimes investigations into senior party figures.

“The ban on the Awami League is not only unjust, it is self-defeating,” Hasina said in emailed comments to Reuters published Wednesday. “Millions of people support the Awami League, so as things stand, they will not vote. You cannot disenfranchise millions of people if you want a political system that works.”

For decades, Bangladesh’s politics have been dominated by the Awami League and its main rival, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), in a country of more than 126 million registered voters. The BNP boycotted the 2024 election, with its top leaders jailed or in exile.

Human Rights Watch has denounced the ban on the Awami League as “draconian,” warning it undermines pluralism and the credibility of the upcoming polls.

With the Awami League sidelined, the BNP is widely expected to lead next year’s vote, while Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist party, has been gaining momentum.

“We are not asking Awami League voters to support other parties,” Hasina told Reuters. “We still hope common sense will prevail and we will be allowed to contest the election ourselves.”