Distinguished Professor Ali Riaz participated in a panel discussion on elections in South Asia at Tufts University in Boston. The event was organized by the South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies on April 16. In his presentation, Riaz explained how the 2024 election in Bangladesh was “engineered” to deliver a victory to the incumbent Awami League and Sheikh Hasina. Hasina won a fourth consecutive term as the prime minister, and her party secured about 95% of seats in the 300-member parliament.
Four strategies were adopted by the incumbent to ensure the victory, Riaz argued. They included disqualifying the opposition candidates, violently cracking down on opposition leaders, propping up new political parties and “weaponizing” the judiciary. Major opposition parties boycotted the election while the ruling party fielded its leaders as independent candidates to make the election appear as competitive. The United States, United Kingdom, and western countries described the election as “not free and fair.” Riaz insisted that the election transformed the country to a “personalistic autocracy.”
The panel was moderated by Professor Ayesha Jalal and participants included Sugata Bose of Harvard University and Fahd Humayun of Tufts University, who spoke about India and Pakistan’s elections, respectively.
