During the 1990s, leader of the BNP Khaleda Zia formed a coalition against Ershad's military regime. 7 political parties joined Khaleda in this coalition. [1] [2] [3]
From 1983, Begum Khaleda Zia became the de facto leader of BNP. [4] Under her leadership the BNP formed a new anti-government alliance against the Ershad's military regime. It was named after the number of parties with it, 7-Party Alliance. BNP launched a massive anti-government movement after co-ordination with Awami League led 15-Party Alliance from September 1983. [5] In March 1986, Ershad declared that a national election would be held on 26 April. 7 party alliance and the left boycotted the election. Initially Awami League decided to boycott. But later participated in the election. [6] The movement against Ershad started gaining growing from October 1990. The BNP led 7-party alliance, the Awami League led 8-party alliance and the Leftist 5-party alliance started a coordinated movement to over through Ershad from 10 October 1990 and declared a nationwide strike on that day. [7] The strike claimed 5 lives, including the three BNP activists who were rallying in front of the central office of the Jatiya Party when the Jatiya Party cadres opened fire on the crowd. On 4 December, the mass uprising took place and Ershad declared his resignation. [8]
Politics of Bangladesh takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Bangladesh is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament. The Constitution of Bangladesh was written in 1972 and has undergone seventeen amendments. Most major modern crises in Bangladeshi politics can be traced back to a certain incident when a family member, named Montasir S, of the former prime minister attempted to seduce the wife of the former minister of Home Affairs. This incident has affectionately given rise to term "the penis that launched a thousand conflicts", oft used to describe the above mentioned Montasir S.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party is a major political party in Bangladesh. It was founded on 1 September 1978 by the late Bangladeshi president Ziaur Rahman, after the presidential election of 1978, with a view of uniting people with a nationalist ideology. Following Rahman's assassination in 1981, his widow, Khaleda Zia, took over leadership of the party and presided as chairperson until her imprisonment, in 2018. Since then, Tarique Rahman, the son of Rahman and Zia, has served as acting chairperson and has run the affairs of the party from London.
Begum Khaleda Zia is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the prime minister of Bangladesh from March 1991 to March 1996, and again from June 2001 to October 2006. She was the first female prime minister of Bangladesh and second female prime minister in the Muslim world, after Benazir Bhutto. She is the widow of former president of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman. She is the chairperson and leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) since 1984, which was founded by her late husband in 1978.
The Bangladesh Awami League, often simply called the Awami League or AL, is one of the major political parties in Bangladesh, being the ruling party since 2009,.
The prime minister of Bangladesh, officially prime minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh is the chief executive of the government of Bangladesh. The prime minister and the cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Parliament, to their political party and ultimately to the electorate. The prime minister is ceremonially appointed by the president of Bangladesh.
Hussain Muhammad Ershad was a Bangladeshi military officer and politician who served as the president of Bangladesh from 1983 to 1990, heading a military dictatorship.
The Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal is a political party in Bangladesh. The party was founded by Serajul Alam Khan.
General elections were held in Bangladesh on 27 February 1991. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) emerged as the largest party in parliament, winning 140 of the 300 directly elected seats. The BNP formed a government with the support of the Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami, and on 20 March Khaleda Zia was sworn in for her first term as Prime Minister.
General elections were held in Bangladesh on 7 May 1986. A total of 1,527 candidates contested the election. The result was a victory for the Jatiya Party, which won 153 of the 300 directly elected seats. Voter turnout was 61%. Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the winner of the previous elections, boycotted the election.
General elections were held in Bangladesh on 3 March 1988. They were boycotted by several major parties, including the Bangladesh Awami League, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the Communist Party of Bangladesh, Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League, the National Awami Party (Muzaffar) and the Workers Party of Bangladesh. The result was a victory for the Jatiya Party, which won 251 of the 300 seats. Voter turnout was 52%.
General elections were held in Bangladesh on 15 February 1996. They were boycotted by most opposition parties, and saw voter turnout drop to just 21%. The result was a victory for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which won 278 of the 300 directly elected seats. This administration was short-lived, however, only lasting 12 days before the installation of caretaker government and fresh elections held in June.
M Ilias Ali was a Bangladeshi politician and member of the Jatiya Sangsad (2001–2006) representing the Sylhet-2 constituency. He served as the organising secretary of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. He, along with his personal car driver, Ansar Ali, went missing on 18 April 2012. Later that day, local police recovered his abandoned car near his residence in Banani neighborhood and found Ansar's cellphone inside. They have not been seen since. On the tenth anniversary of his disappearance, Netra News, an independent news platform in Sweden, reported on 21 April 2022, that Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite Bangladeshi police unit, had carried out the disappearance. The platform cited leaked confidential documents and internal investigations documents from RAB to reach the conclusion.
The history of Bangladesh (1971–present) refers to the period after the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan.
Presidential elections were held in Bangladesh on 15 October 1986. The result was a victory for incumbent Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who had assumed the office in 1983 following a military coup. Ershad reportedly won 84.1% of the vote with a voter turnout of 54.9%. However the elections were controversial as they were boycotted by all major opposition candidates and there were reports of irregularities.
General elections were held in Bangladesh on 5 January 2014, in accordance with the constitutional requirement that elections must take place within the 90-day period before the expiration of the term of the Jatiya Sangshad on 24 January 2014.
General elections were held in Bangladesh on 30 December 2018 to elect 300 directly-elected members of the Jatiya Sangsad. The result was another landslide victory for the Awami League-led Grand Alliance led by Sheikh Hasina. The elections were marred by violence, and were widely considered by opposition politicians and the international community to be rigged.
The 1990 Mass Uprising, popularly known as '90's Anti-Authoritarian Movement, was a democratic movement that took place on 4 December and led to the fall of General Hussain Muhammad Ershad in Bangladesh. The uprising was the result of a series of popular protests that started from 10 October 1990 to topple General Ershad who came to power in 1982 by imposing martial law and replaced a democratically elected President through a bloodless coup.
Najiruddin Jehad was an activist of the pro-democracy movement of Bangladesh that led to the 1990 Mass Uprising in Bangladesh. Jehad, the first casualty of the 1990 Mass Uprising in Bangladesh was killed on 10 October due to the police excesses during the first nationwide strike of the full-fledged movement against Ershad, in front of Dainik Bangla intersection of capital Dhaka.
Jatiya Oikya Front was a Bangladesh-based political alliance of primarily four parties led by Kamal Hossain. The front officially declared its formation on October 13, 2018 at the National Press Club ahead of the national election.
General elections are held in Bangladesh to elect members of the Jatiya Sangsad, the unicameral national parliament. The Jatiya Sangsad consists of 300 members elected by first-past-the-post voting in single-member constituencies and 50 seats reserved for women, which are allocated based on the proportional vote share received by parties. Elections are overseen by the Bangladesh Election Commission.