Why Bangladesh’s democracy is on life support?

A potentially long political crisis is looming over Bangladesh before a date is even set for next year’s elections.
Since its birth as an independent country in 1971, Bangladesh has had a troubled relationship with democracy and the rule of law, undergoing the assassination of its founding president and a series of coups and countercoups in its first decades. The political landscape has been characterised by an array of governance systems, shifting between one-party rule, military control, electoral democracy and an autocracy under a civilian government. The country’s political system now closely resembles Russia, with a group of oligarchs enjoying immense financial benefits and heavily invested in keeping the current regime in power. With an election coming in January 2024, the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has been raising the pressure, taking to the streets in a series of massive rallies to demand the election be held under a neutral caretaker government. However, the governing Bangladesh Awami League, is adamant it will go ahead with the election under current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The last election considered free and fair took place in 2008 and catapulted Hasina to power the following year. Elections in 2014 and 2018 were marked by controversies. The 2014 election faced opposition boycotts. Major liberal democracies including the US and Australia called for a new vote but India, Russia and China expressed no problem with the result. While the US voices concerns about democratic backsliding in Bangladesh, China and Russia continue to lend support to the current regime.
In an apparent rebuke to US pressure on Hasina, China’s Ambassador to Bangladesh recently said his country would not meddle in Bangladesh’s internal affairs, and Russia denounced what it called interference by the US envoy in Bangladesh. A free and fair election would likely stop Bangladesh’s authoritarian slide and pave the way for greater accountability.
The economy is struggling and unemployment is rising. For a country full of young people, with a larger Muslim population than Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran combined, a functioning democracy might offer the only chance to return a sense of optimism.