Bangladesh's ousted leader Hasina denounces the upcoming election from her exile in India

Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh's ousted leader, criticizes the upcoming election from exile, warning of potential instability without fair participation.

From her exile in India, Bangladesh's ousted leader Sheikh Hasina has slammed the country's upcoming election after her party was barred from the polls, remarks that could deepen tensions ahead of the pivotal vote next month.

Hasina, who was sentenced to death for her crackdown on a student uprising in 2024 that killed hundreds of people and led to the toppling of her 15-year rule, warned in an email to The Associated Press last week that without inclusive and free and fair elections, Bangladesh will face prolonged instability.

She also claimed that Bangladesh's interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus deliberately disenfranchised millions of her supporters by excluding her party — the former ruling Awami League — from the election.

“Each time political participation is denied to a significant portion of the population, it deepens resentment, delegitimises institutions and creates the conditions for future instability," she wrote.

"A government born of exclusion cannot unite a divided nation,” Hasina added.

More than 127 million people in Bangladesh are eligible to vote in the February 12 election, widely seen as the country's most consequential in decades and the first since Hasina's removal from power after the mass uprising.