Ms. Hasina, 78, mentioned she wouldn’t return to Bangladesh below any authorities shaped after elections that exclude her social gathering, and plans to stay in India, the place she fled in August 2024 following a lethal student-led rebellion.
An interim authorities headed by Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus has ruled Bangladesh since Ms. Hasina’s ouster and has pledged to carry elections subsequent February.
“The ban on the Awami League is just not solely unjust, it’s self-defeating,” Ms. Hasina mentioned in emailed responses to Reuters — her first media engagement since her dramatic fall from energy after 15 straight years on the helm of Bangladeshi politics.
“The subsequent authorities will need to have electoral legitimacy. Millions of individuals help the Awami League, in order issues stand, they won’t vote. You can’t disenfranchise tens of millions of individuals in order for you a political system that works.”
EX-LEADER HOPES AWAMI LEAGUE WILL BE ALLOWED TO CONTEST
Bangladesh has over 126 million registered voters. The Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party have lengthy dominated the nation’s politics, and the BNP is extensively anticipated to win the upcoming vote.
The Election Commission suspended the Awami League’s registration in May. Earlier, the Yunus-led authorities banned all social gathering actions, citing nationwide safety threats and struggle crimes investigations into senior Awami League leaders.
“We will not be asking Awami League voters to help different events,” Ms. Hasina mentioned. “We nonetheless hope widespread sense will prevail and we might be allowed to contest the election ourselves.”
She didn’t say if she or anybody else on her behalf was holding any back-channel talks with Bangladeshi authorities to let the Awami League take part within the polls.
Opinion:Bangladesh, a yr after Sheikh Hasina’s ouster
Spokespeople for Mr. Yunus didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Ms. Hasina, credited with reworking Bangladesh’s economic system however accused of human rights abuses and suppressing dissent, received a fourth consecutive time period in 2024. That election was boycotted by the principle opposition, whose prime leaders have been both jailed or in exile.
The International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh’s home struggle crimes court docket, has concluded proceedings in opposition to Ms. Hasina, who faces costs of crimes in opposition to humanity over the violent crackdown on pupil protests in mid-2024.
According to a United Nations report, as much as 1,400 individuals could have been killed throughout the protests between July 15 and August 5, 2024, with 1000’s extra injured — most from gunfire by safety forces — in what was the worst violence in Bangladesh since its 1971 struggle of independence.
Prosecutors additionally allege she oversaw enforced disappearances and torture of opposition activists via clandestine detention centres run by safety businesses.
A verdict is anticipated on November 13.
Ms. Hasina denied the fees, saying she was not personally concerned in using deadly pressure or different alleged crimes.
“These proceedings are a politically motivated charade,” she mentioned. “They’ve been introduced by kangaroo courts, with responsible verdicts a foregone conclusion. I used to be principally denied prior discover or any significant alternative to defend myself.”
NO PLANS TO RETURN HOME YET
Despite the political turmoil, Ms. Hasina mentioned the Awami League would finally return to play a task in Bangladesh’s future — whether or not in authorities or opposition — and that her household needn’t lead it.
Her son and adviser, Sajeeb Wazed, who lives in Washington, informed Reuters final yr he may think about main the social gathering if requested.
“It’s actually not about me or my household,” Ms. Hasina mentioned. “For Bangladesh to realize the longer term all of us need, there have to be a return to constitutional rule and political stability. No single individual or household defines our nation’s future.”
Ms. Hasina, whose father and three brothers have been killed in a 1975 army coup whereas she and her sister have been overseas, mentioned she lives freely in Delhi however stays cautious given her household’s violent historical past.
A number of months in the past, a Reuters reporter noticed Ms. Hasina taking a quiet stroll via Delhi’s historic Lodhi Garden, accompanied by two people who gave the impression to be her private safety element. She acknowledged passersby with a nod as some recognised her.
“I might in fact like to go house, as long as the federal government there was authentic, the structure was being upheld, and regulation and order genuinely prevailed,” she mentioned.
Ms. Hasina’s departure triggered focused violence in opposition to Awami League employees, although the streets have since remained largely calm. However, clashes erupted earlier this month throughout the signing of a constitution for state reform.
