As Bangladesh gears up for election, a brand new political participant emerges

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Final summer time, 26-year-old Bangladeshi pupil activist Nahid Islam did the unthinkable. Together with a number of companions, he set the stage to convey down the authoritarian Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her authorities.

It sparked Bangladesh’s first ever Gen-Z rebellion and concluded with Hasina swiftly fleeing to India in a helicopter.

The scholars’ actions got here at a heavy value: at the very least 1,400 folks misplaced their lives and plenty of others have been injured, largely by the hands of Hasina’s safety forces.

For Islam, the eight months since then have been a whirlwind. The sociology graduate was promptly made a part of the interim authorities led by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, and extra just lately, he turned the convener of a brand new student-led political occasion, the Nationwide Citizen’s Celebration (NCP).

It is past something the little-known son of middle-class educator dad and mom might have imagined, however Islam stays unfazed.

“There was no way to remove the regime except through an uprising,” he tells NPR in Dhaka. “We knew negotiation wasn’t an option. But it wasn’t just against the regime—it was against an entire corrupt system.”

Is a brand new political period potential?

The query many Bangladeshis are asking now’s: Can the rebellion translate into long-term political illustration, or will the nation’s long-standing political institution proceed to take care of its stranglehold?

Islam believes a brand new political period is feasible—however it would take time. His imaginative and prescient for the centrist NCP is one which stands other than the previous guard and brings a recent manner of doing issues in what he describes as a “post-ideological” period.

“We want a new political system and a new constitution,” he says. “The current one enables authoritarianism. We need reform so that future governments can’t repeat the mistakes of the past.”

He is referring to accusations of corruption, oppression, human rights abuses, and a scarcity of freedom of speech that endured for years below two of Bangladesh’s primary political events.

Precisely 54 years in the past, on March twenty sixth, 1971, East Pakistan, now often known as Bangladesh, declared its independence from West Pakistan. This led to a brutal nine-month battle, which was adopted by a interval of one-party rule and, finally, a navy takeover that lasted till 1991.

Since then, it has been dominated by the Awami League, led by Hasina, and the Bangladesh Nationalist Celebration (BNP), led by Khaleda Zia, widow of former navy ruler Ziaur Rahman.

The third-largest occasion, the religiously conservative Jamaat-e-Islami, has additionally been influential. It has been banned on quite a few events on account of accusations of inciting violence, most just lately in 2024. The ban was lifted by the interim authorities.

Main polls and media platforms in Bangladesh predict that the BNP will dominate the upcoming parliamentary elections, that are on account of happen in December or quickly afterwards.

Tapping right into a political vacuum

With most Awami League leaders both exiled or imprisoned, and uncertainty about their participation, a political vacuum is forming that Islam desires to faucet into.

In line with Bangladesh’s Bureau of Statistics, 1 / 4 of the inhabitants is between the ages of 15 and 29 — that is 45.9 million folks.

Bangladesh’s Election Fee mentioned voter turnout within the 2024 elections was round 40 % — though impartial analysts consider it to be decrease. 

“The uprising has shown that a new political generation has emerged,” Islam says. “They have new aspirations. This generation rejects the old parties. We believe there is a social demand for change.”

As a part of this shift, the NCP has already begun crafting its manifesto, with a give attention to training, healthcare, local weather change, and addressing the particular wants of the nation’s youth.

However Naomi Hossain, a political analyst at SOAS, College of London, believes the NCP will face quite a few challenges.

“If students secure 25 percent or even 50 percent of the votes, it wouldn’t necessarily translate into as many seats,” she says, “even in the fairest elections, due to how constituencies and first-past-the-post politics work, all elections distort popular preferences in some way.”

A brand new technology vs new concepts

The NCP additionally faces the truth that many younger persons are aligned with the coed wings of the BNP and Jamaat.

Mohammad Abu Bakr Siddique Molla, a spokesperson for Jamaat-e-Islami within the UK, says that although NCP targets younger Bangladeshis, each his occasion and the BNP even have pupil organizations.

“These organizations played a major role in the uprising,” he tells NPR. “When the elections come, the Gen-Z generation will be divided — some will support the new political parties, while others will back Jamaat or BNP.”

Some key Gen-Z figures aligned with current political events embrace Sadek Kayen, the chief of Jamaat’s pupil wing and a Dhaka College pupil, in addition to BNP pupil leaders Rakibul Islam Rakib and Nasir Uddin Nasir.

These, together with many different distinguished pupil activists, performed a vital function in constructing the momentum that led to the rebellion. They proceed to be central figures in shaping the way forward for Bangladesh’s political panorama.

Abdul Moyeen Khan, a senior BNP member, believes that the reforms Islam and his occasion are pushing for are a part of an ongoing course of, and never can not essentially be formed by generational variations.

He says that it is not that the Outdated Guard will retire right now, and the younger technology will take over tomorrow. “It doesn’t work that way in society. Reform is a continuous process. A new political generation isn’t defined by age— it’s shaped by new ideas.”

Nonetheless, Hossain says, the brand new pupil occasion has broad fashionable help and sympathy on account of final yr’s rebellion and the sacrifices these younger folks made.

“There’s no reason to believe that if they perform reasonably well in the next election and gain some support, they won’t build their movement over time and attract the institutional support and funding they need.”

Islam stays reserved when requested if he sees himself as Bangladesh’s future prime minister.

“We believe in collective leadership,” he says. “I’m the leader now, but I may not be in the future. What matters is our long-term vision. The uprising is just the beginning—we want to build on that.”

NPR reached out to a consultant of the Awami League for remark however obtained no response.