Dhaka
\nFor the first time in decades, the image that once defined the hometown of Bangladesh\u2019s ousted premier Sheikh Hasina during elections, her Awami League party\u2019s \u201cboat\u201d symbol, is absent.
\nIn its place, posters of rivals like the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the Jamaat\u2011e\u2011Islami party and independents urge voters in Gopalganj to back them in the February 12 election.
\nThe Gopalganj district has long been considered the Awami League\u2019s safest ground, producing Hasina, the country\u2019s longest-serving prime minister, and her father, Bangladesh\u2019s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
\nHasina ruled for more than 15 straight years until 2024, with the opposition either boycotting elections or marginalised through mass arrests of senior leaders. A youth\u2011driven uprising toppled Hasina in August 2024 and sent her into exile in India.
\nHer party has since been barred from the February election, being held under an interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
\nHasina told Reuters last October via email that the absence of the Awami League would leave millions of supporters without a candidate and push many to boycott the election.
\n\u201cThey can put up as many posters as they want,\u201d said Gopalganj rickshaw puller Ershad Sheikh, standing under layers of opposition posters hanging from poles.
\n\u201cIf there is no boat on the ballot paper, none of the 13 voters in my family will go to the polling station.\u201d
\nA Dhaka court late last year sentenced Hasina to death for ordering a deadly crackdown on the 2024 uprising. A United Nations report estimated that up to 1,400 people were killed and thousands wounded \u2014 most by gunfire from security forces, though Hasina denied ordering the killings.
\nAwami League voters shifting to BNP, Jamaat
\nA survey of various voters published this month found that nearly half of former Awami League voters now prefer the BNP, the frontrunner in most opinion polls, followed by roughly 30% who favour Jamaat.
\n\u201cThese patterns suggest that former Awami League voters are not dispersing evenly across the party system or withdrawing from partisan preferences, but are instead consolidating their support around specific opposition alternatives,\u201d said the survey by Dhaka-based Communication & Research Foundation and Bangladesh Election and Public Opinion Studies.
\nIn Gopalganj, families of Awami League activists say the transition away from Hasina has come at a high personal cost.
\nShikha Khanam\u2019s brother, Ibrahim Hossain, 30, an activist in the party\u2019s student wing, was arrested in December under the Anti-Terrorism Act over unrest at a rally in July last year. Khanam said her brother had been falsely implicated.
\nHer family has now withdrawn completely from politics.
\n\u201cWe won\u2019t vote. We are done,\u201d she said.
\nThe July rally in Gopalganj, organised by the newly formed student\u2011led National Citizen Party to mark the 2024 uprising, left five people dead in clashes with police. Several Awami League activists and members of minority communities said they are now living in fear.
\nRestaurant waiter Mohabbat Molla said the wider choice of candidates changes nothing for him.
\n\u201cOur candidate isn\u2019t here,\u201d he said, referring to Hasina. \u201cThe Awami League isn\u2019t here. So this election is not for us.\u201d
\nCompetitive election
\nOthers see hope in the changing election bunting now hanging from Gopalganj\u2019s walls. Businessman Sheikh Ilias Ahmed hopes the upcoming vote will finally allow people to choose freely.
\n\u201cIn the past, I went to the polling station and found my vote already cast,\u201d he said. \u201cThis time, I want to believe things will be different.\u201d
\nWhat Awami League voters do next may shape the outcome, said political analyst Asif Shahan, a professor at the University of Dhaka. \u201cI don\u2019t expect a nationwide boycott,\u201d said Shahan.
\n\u201cThe core loyalists may abstain, but undecided, locally focused voters are likely to turn out and could decide the result.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dhaka For the first time in decades, the image that once defined the hometown of Bangladesh\u2019s ousted premier Sheikh Hasina during elections, her Awami League party\u2019s \u201cboat\u201d symbol, is absent. In its place, posters of rivals like the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the Jamaat\u2011e\u2011Islami party and independents urge voters in Gopalganj to back them in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-529931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n