Bangladesh Readies for Elections, Worry Among Hasina Supporters

Bangladesh is preparing for the first election since the overthrow of Sheikh Hasina, but supporters of her banned Awami League (AL) are struggling to decide whether to shift their allegiance. 

In Gopalganj, south of the capital Dhaka and a strong bastion of Hasina's iron-grip rule, residents are grappling with an election without the party that shaped their political lives for decades.

"Sheikh Hasina may have done



wrong -- she and her friends and allies -- but what did the millions of Awami League supporters do?" said tricycle delivery driver Mohammad Shahjahan Fakir, 68, adding that he would not vote. 

"Why won't the 'boat' symbol be there on the ballot paper?" he said, referring to AL's former election icon. 

The Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people will hold elections on February 12, its first since the uprising.