DHAKA (AFP) – Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday dismissed the opposition’s criticism of the country’s general election as “illegitimate” as she celebrated securing her fifth term in power.
“The election was free and fair,” Hasina told reporters in her first comments since the vote on Sunday, where her party took three-quarters of seats in Parliament after polls boycotted by the opposition, with the turnout a meagre 41.8 per cent.
“If any party does not participate in the election, it does not mean there is no democracy,” she said, adding that “those who want to criticise can criticise”.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which has seen its ranks diminished by mass arrests, called a general strike and, along with dozens of others, refused to participate.
Senior BNP leader Moyeen Khan called it a “fake election” and told reporters in Dhaka on Monday that the government was “illegitimate”.
Hasina, 76, branded the BNP “a terrorist organisation”.
Britain and the United States (US) slammed the vote, but India endorsed it.
“The US shares the view with other observers that these elections were not free or fair and we regret that not all parties participated,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in Washington.
Like India, the US has largely had a warm working relationship with Hasina, seeing her as pro-business and like-minded on opposing extremism, but Washington has not shied away from criticism on rights issues.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres “calls on all parties to reject all forms of violence and to ensure that human rights and the rule of law are fully respected,” spokeswoman Florencia Soto Nino said on Monday in a statement.
Bangladesh was the first in key South Asian elections this year where embattled opposition parties face a tough battle – including in Pakistan, where jailed former prime minister Imran Khan has been rejected as a candidate, and in neighbouring India.