Bangladesh’s Election Commission has cancelled the registration of the former ruling party of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, stopping it from collaborating within the subsequent nationwide election, which is anticipated to be held by June subsequent 12 months.
The resolution on Monday (May 12, 2025) got here hours after the nation’s interim authorities headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus issued an official notification banning the Awami League party and its affiliated our bodies from conducting actions on-line and elsewhere.
Also learn | Awami League rejects its ban by Bangladesh interim authorities, vows to proceed operations
Monday’s formal notification from the Ministry of Home Affairs was issued two days after the interim Cabinet determined to ban all actions of the party underneath the nation’s Anti-Terrorism Act till a particular tribunal concludes a trial for the party and its leaders.
In the notification, the federal government mentioned it outlawed all actions “including any kind of publication, media, online and social media” as well as “any kind of campaign, procession, meeting, gathering (or) conference until the trial of the leaders and activists … is completed.”
It mentioned the choice was efficient instantly.
Separately, the Election Commission mentioned Monday it wouldn’t enable the Ms. Hasina-led party to contest the following election. Political events should be registered with the Election Commission to participate in elections.
A authorities adviser mentioned Monday that anybody who posts feedback on-line in assist of the Awami League party would face arrest.
On Sunday, the Awami League accused the interim authorities of “stoking division” and trampling on “democratic norms” by banning its actions. It mentioned in an announcement that the ban “stoked division within society, strangled democratic norms, fueled ongoing pogrom against dissenters and strangled inclusivity, all undemocratic steps.”
The Awami League is one of two major parties in Bangladesh, which has a fractious parliamentary democracy with a violent history of coups and political assassination.
Ms. Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh’s independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, fled the country on Aug. 5 last year and has been in exile in India since then along with many senior party colleagues and former Cabinet minsters and lawmakers. They have been accused of killing protesters during an uprising against Hasina’s 15-year rule in July-August last year.
The United Nations human rights office said in a report in February that up to 1,400 people may have been killed during three weeks of anti-Hasina protests. But the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights recommended in a report to “refrain from political party bans that would undermine a return to a genuine multi-party democracy and effectively disenfranchise a large part of the Bangladeshi electorate.”
The Awami League, which led a nine-month conflict in opposition to Pakistan for independence in 1971, has been underneath extreme stress since Hasina’s ouster. Protesters have attacked and torched many of its workplaces together with its headquarters in Dhaka. It accuses the interim authorities of sponsoring mobs to assault the houses and companies of their activists and leaders. It mentioned hundreds of its supporters have been arrested throughout the nation and that many have been killed.
Mr. Yunus has mentioned the following election will seemingly be held both in December or in June subsequent 12 months.
Published – May 13, 2025 11:24 am IST
