Sawt Falasteen - Bangladesh readies for polls, worry among Hasina supporters

In Gopalganj, south of the capital Dhaka and a strong bastion of Hasina's iron-grip rule, residents are grappling with an election without the party that shaped their political lives for decades.

"Sheikh Hasina may have done wrong -- she and her friends and allies -- but what did the millions of Awami League supporters do?" said tricycle delivery driver Mohammad Shahjahan Fakir, 68, adding that he would not vote.

"Why won't the 'boat' symbol be there on the ballot paper?" he said, referring to AL's former election icon.

The Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people will hold elections on February 12, its first since the uprising.

Hasina, who crushed opposition parties during her rule, won landslide victories in Gopalganj in every election since 1991.

After a failed attempt to cling to power and a brutal crackdown on protesters, she was ousted as prime minister in August 2024 and fled to India.

She was sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity by a court in Dhaka in November, and her former ruling party, once the country's most popular, has been outlawed.

Human Rights Watch has condemned the AL ban as "draconian".

"There's so much confusion right now," said Mohammad Shafayet Biswas, 46, a banana and betel leaf seller in Gopalganj.

"A couple of candidates are running from this constituency -- I don't even know who they are."

As a crowd gathered in the district, one man shouted: "Who is going to the polling centres? We don't even have our candidates this time."

- 'Dehumanise' -

Hasina's father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president of Bangladesh, hailed from Gopalganj and is buried in the town.

Statues of Rahman have been torn down nationwide, but in Gopalganj, murals and statues are well-maintained.

Since Hasina's downfall, clashes have broken out during campaigning by other parties, including one between police and AL supporters in July 2025, after which authorities filed more than 8,000 cases against residents.

Sazzad Siddiqui, a professor at Dhaka University, believes voter turnout in Gopalganj could be the lowest in the country.

"Many people here are still in denial that Sheikh Hasina did something very wrong," said Siddiqui, who sat on a government commission formed after the 2025 unrest.

"At the same time, the government has constantly tried to dehumanise them."

This time, frontrunners include candidates from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamist party.

Both are from Hasina's arch-rivals, now eyeing power. "I am going door to door," BNP candidate S.M Zilany, 57, told AFP, saying many would-be voters had never had a candidate canvass for their backing.

"I promise them I will stand by them."

Zilany said he had run twice against Hasina -- and was struck down by 34 legal cases he claimed had been politically motivated.

This time, he said that there was "a campaign to discourage voters from turning up".

Jamaat candidate M.M Rezaul Karim, 53, said that under Hasina, the party had been driven underground.

"People want a change in leadership," Karim told AFP, saying he was open to all voters, whatever their previous loyalties.

"We believe in coexistence; those involved in crimes should be punished; others must be spared," Karim said. Those once loyal to Hasina appear disillusioned.

Some say they had abandoned the AL, but remain unsure whom to support.

"I am not going to vote," said one woman, who asked not to be named.

"Who should I vote for except Hasina? She is like a sister."

M.AbuKhalil--SF-PST