A book event featuring the new book of Distinguished Professor Ali Riaz titled, Voting in Hybrid Regime: Understanding the 2018 Bangladeshi Election, was held at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington D.C. on September 23.

professor talking about his book

Distinguished Professor Ali Riaz

Speaking at the event Riaz highlighted some of the aspects of the 2018 election and its implications for the Bangladeshi politics. The 2018 election delivered an unprecedented victory to the incumbent Awami League party. International media has described the election as “farcical.”

Riaz argued in the book that Bangladesh has become a hybrid regime and that the incumbent used strategies such as creating a culture of fear, exclusion of candidates, and control of media to win the election. The event, “Voting in Hybrid Regime: Bangladesh’s 2018 Election and Implications for Politics in  Bangladesh and Beyond,” was moderated by Michael Kugelman, the associate director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center.