In the landmark election of 12 February 2026, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) returned to power with a commanding two-thirds majority, securing 212 seats and ending two decades in the political wilderness. Rising from the aftershocks of a student-led uprising that dismantled a political dynasty in 2024, Tarique Rahman now stands as Prime Minister-designate, leading a nation attempting to rewrite its social contract. The scale of the victory suggests renewal. Yet renewal, in this case, comes shadowed by an uncomfortable absence.

Beneath the triumph lies a disquieting question: can a democracy be considered legitimate when its oldest political force, the Awami League (AL), was legally barred from contesting? The European Union described the poll as administratively credible, but legitimacy rests on more than procedural efficiency.

The total exclusion of the AL through judicial and administrative coercion has created a representation vacuum at the heart of the new order. Democracies are strengthened not merely by decisive mandates but by the presence of credible alternatives. If the Awami League remains permanently outlawed, Bangladesh risks institutionalising a politics of revenge in which the “out-group” waits patiently for the next rupture to reclaim its place.

Stability will ultimately depend not on erasure, but on reintegration—on whether the state can absorb the rank-and-file of its vanquished rival back into competitive politics.

At the........

© The Friday Times