Military Juntas of the Twenty-First Century: Bangladesh

The secular Awami League, led by Sheikh Hasina, has won the recent Bangladeshi parliamentary elections in a landslide. Although the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by Khaleda Zia, has challenged the election, the results seem clear and the elections were declared free and fair by international obeservers. This new parliament is set to take control of the impoverished nation from the military junta which had ruled for two years. The military junta (benignly known as the "caretaker government") began in early 2007, after the previous electoral battle between the Awami League and the BNP turned into a bloody and chaotic street war.

The results of 2008 are a big shift from the results of the last standing election in 2001. That election saw the right-wing BNP win 193 seats to Awami's 62, and the main Islamist party take 17 seats. In contrast, the 2008 elections see the Awami-led coalition take more than 260 to BNP's 31, and the Islamist party "almost wiped out". Note that there are 300 seats in the Bangladeshi parliament.

Between floods, poverty, cyclones, and military intrusions into politics, it seems unlikely that Bangladesh would be able to sustain democracy. And there certainly remains a possibility that the opposition parties will cause a ruckus and incite more violence. Hopefully the will of the people will be respected, and the "caretakers" will step aside as planned.

Hot off the presses: Uh-oh.



Bangladeshis line up to vote (courtesy of the CBC)