Awami League supporters adrift as Bangladesh heads for polls without ruling party 

Bangladesh's upcoming polls see Awami League supporters uncertain, as traditional backing shifts towards BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami amid political turmoil.

Seventy-year-old Abu Bakkar has never cast his vote for any symbol other than the Awami League (AL)’s “Boat”. A life-long supporter of the party, he never imagined a national election without it. Yet on February 12, Bangladesh will go to the polls with the Awami League (AL) barred from contesting, following a crackdown after the mass uprising that ousted party president and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and ended the party’s 15-year rule.

“I have never cast my ballot for any symbol other than the AL’s Boat in my lifetime,” he said. “The party is barred from this election, but I still intend to vote. I don’t know if I will be able to vote in the next election, as I am already old.”

Mr. Bakkar declined to say which party or candidate he would vote for, though he said several candidates had approached him seeking support. “I have not yet decided, but I will go and cast my vote,” he said.

Following the dramatic fall of the Awami League, most of its senior leaders have either fled the country or remain in jail. With the party barred from the election, its traditional vote bank has been left politically adrift. In 2001, the AL won its lowest-ever tally of 62 seats in the 300-member parliament, despite securing more than two crore votes, when the electorate stood at just over seven crore. In the widely regarded free and fair 2008 election, the party won nearly 3.5 crore votes as part of the Grand Alliance, with just over eight crore registered voters. Bangladesh’s current voter base exceeds 12.7 crore.

With the Awami League out of the fray, a large segment of its former supporters remains undecided—a factor that could prove decisive as former allies Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami contest against each other.

Sources within the Awami League said the party remains uncertain about its election strategy. Although it announced a boycott, there has been little mobilisation on the ground. Grassroots activists said the absence of clear instructions has left supporters confused about whether the party wants the election to proceed and power to transfer from the interim government, which they accuse of carrying out a harsh crackdown over the past 18 months.