Sawt Falasteen - Bangladesh's PM hopeful Rahman warns of 'huge' challenges ahead

If victorious on Thursday, the leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said his first priority would be restoring security to end the political turmoil that has gripped the country since the overthrow of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina's autocratic rule by a 2024 youth-led uprising.

"We need to ensure a normal situation in the country, so that people are safe," Rahman told AFP.

But he warned the task ahead in the South Asian nation of 170 million people would be daunting.

"The economy has been destroyed," he said, accusing the ousted government of neglecting ordinary citizens.

"The health system has been destroyed in the last regime, the energy sector has been destroyed".

Rahman's BNP is a frontrunner in the polls, but faces a stiff challenge from a coalition led by Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamist party.

Soft-spoken Rahman, sitting in his office underneath gold-framed portraits of his late parents -- former Bangladesh leaders Ziaur Rahman and Khaleda Zia -- said he was confident of a decisive victory.

"We expect that we will have a clear mandate from the people -- a big mandate," he said, adding he did not foresee the need for a coalition beyond his current party alliance.

"We'll have enough seats to form our own government."

- 'Try to do better' -

Rahman, 60, returned to Bangladesh in December after 17 years in exile in Britain during Hasina's rule.

He assumed the leadership of the BNP from his mother, three-time prime minister Khaleda Zia, who died in December aged 80, just days after he returned.

"They were they, I am me," he said, referring to his famous parents, but stressing he too had spent a lifetime in politics. "I will try to do better than them."

Among the top of the list of tasks he will face if elected will be to tackle the economic woes of the world's second-largest producer of garments.

"There are serious challenges ahead of us -- we need to tackle the economic situation," he added.

"There are a huge number of unemployed. We need to create businesses for these young people to have jobs," he said, adding he was particularly worried about the economic situation faced by women.

- 'Neighbourly relationship' -

With relations between Bangladesh and neighbouring India strained, Rahman struck a careful note on foreign ties.

"The interest of my people, and the interest of my country, comes first," he said, but adding that Bangladesh nevertheless wanted "at least a neighbourly relationship" with the countries surrounding it.

Hasina, 78, is currently in hiding in India and was sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity in November.

She was once praised for overseeing Bangladesh's rapid economic rise, but she also presided over a government that crushed dissent and is accused of rampant theft, especially from large-scale public infrastructure projects.

"What we see is that in the name of mega projects, mega corruption has taken place," said Rahman.

"A few people were made very rich. But the rest of the country, the whole population, they were left with nothing."

But Rahman said he opposed banning political parties by law.

Bangladesh's interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has barred Hasina's Awami League from contesting the vote.

"Of course, if someone is involved in some kind of crime, they need to be punished as per the law," he said.

H.Nasr--SF-PST