DHAKA: Tens of thousands of supporters of Bangladesh’s main opposition party took to the streets of the capital on Saturday defying fears of being arrested ahead of the country’s national election early next year.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), whose top leadership is either jailed or in exile, has demanded that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina step down and make way for a neutral government to oversee the Jan 7 poll, which the opposition party has boycotted.

Many leaders and activists of BNP who are in hiding since Oct 28, the day a police officer was killed and hundreds were injured during an anti-government protest, joined the Victory Day rally.

Some supporters and activists gathered in front of the padlocked headquarters entrance in Dhaka. Many of the senior party leaders are either in jail or absconding dozens of lawsuits filed by the police and the ruling party.

“If the government has the courage, it should resign and hold the election under a caretaker government, Abdul Moyeen Khan, a former minister and member of the BNP’s highest policy-making body, told the rally.

The election is being “stage-managed, by way of putting up ‘dummy candidates’ as well as through ‘horse trading’ of some politicians,” Khan told Reuters earlier.

Hasina, seeking a fifth term — the fourth consecutive — has repeatedly rebuffed opposition calls to resign, blaming the BNP for deadly street protests in recent days in support of their demand.

BNP said nearly 10,000 people have been arrested since the election was announced on Nov 15.

Dozens of buses and vehicles have been set on fire over the past month, authorities said.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2023