Dhaka, Bangladesh – As boatman Ripon Mridha washed his feet early in the morning after a night of fishing in Bangladesh’s mighty Padma River, his eyes scanned the walls and shutters of the shops in the neighbourhood market.Until recently, the neighbourhood in central Bangladesh’s Rajbari district was plastered with large posters and banners, with the faces of local politicians belonging to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party looming large.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listToday, those signs are gone, leaving little traces of a party that ruled over Bangladesh for 15 years before a student-led uprising in 2024 toppled Hasina’s iron-fisted government and forced her into exile in India, her close ally.After the uprising, Hasina’s Awami League was banned from all political activities, while a special tribunal, ironically founded by Hasina herself in 2010 to try political opponents, sentenced her to death in absentia for her role in the killing of more than 1,400 people during the protests.On February 12, the country of 170 million people is scheduled to vote in its first parliamentary election since Hasina’s ouster.Mridha, a lifelong Awami League voter, said he feels little enthusiasm over the election after the party he supported had been banned. He might still vote, but faces a dilemma over whom to support since the Awami League’s boat symbol will not appear on the ballot.The boatman, about 50 years of age, said that his family fears that if they don’t vote, they might be identified as Awami League supporters in a country where Hasina and her party today draw widespread anger for the decades of killings, forced disappearances, tortu …
