80-Year-Old Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to Contest in Next General Election

DHAKA, Nov 6: Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia is expected to contest in the country’s general election next year, nearly one and a half years after her longtime rival, Sheikh Hasina, was ousted from power, Germany’s dpa news agency reported.

Zia, who leads the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), will run for three parliamentary seats, the party’s Secretary-General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced on Monday in Dhaka.

The country’s interim administration, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, has scheduled the general election covering all 300 parliamentary constituencies for February next year.

Alamgir also revealed that the BNP has finalized candidates for 237 seats, while Zia’s son, Tarique Rahman, currently living in exile in London, will contest one parliamentary seat in Dhaka. The remaining candidates, he said, will be announced later.

The 80-year-old former premier, who has been battling multiple health issues, has remained largely absent from the political scene since her imprisonment on corruption charges under Hasina’s administration. Zia previously served as Bangladesh’s prime minister for two terms, from 1991 to 1996 and 2001 to 2006.

She was sentenced to 17 years in prison in 2018 after being convicted in two corruption cases, serving over four years before being released in 2022 on health grounds. Her release came with strict conditions: she was barred from traveling abroad and from engaging in political activities.

The BNP continues to insist that the charges against Zia were politically motivated, accusing the previous Awami League government of using the judiciary to suppress opposition voices.

Since 1991, Bangladesh’s political landscape has been dominated by the rivalry between Zia’s BNP and Hasina’s Awami League, which have alternated in power for decades.

However, Sheikh Hasina will not be contesting in the upcoming election after the suspension of all Awami League activities by the interim government in May this year.

The upcoming polls are expected to mark a significant turning point in Bangladesh’s political history, with Khaleda Zia’s return signaling a potential reshaping of the nation’s leadership.

— Voice of Malaysia News