Dhaka, Nov 1 : Although the interim government, led by Muhammad Yunus, has downplayed Bangladesh's former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's call to boycott the February 2026 elections, the support base of the Awami League tells a different story, a report revealed on Saturday.

It added that even in its worst performance in the 2001 election - winning 62 of 300 seats - the Awami League secured over 22 million votes, only about a million fewer than the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which won 193 seats, underscoring the Awami League's enduring popular base.

Writing for leading German media outlet Deutsche Welle (DW), senior journalist and political analyst Masood Kamal observed that a large number of the Awami League supporters remain 'ideologically and historically devoted' to the party despite the allegations levelled against its leadership.

He further argued that 'banning a political party with an executive order' is not "a sign of a civilized society.'

'The irony is that this government was meant to be one of unity. Instead, it has become a tool of division,' DW quoted Kamal as saying.

The report highlighted that six international human rights groups, including CIVICUS, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Fortify Rights, and Human Rights Watch, recently wrote a joint letter to Yunus, calling for the lifting of the ban on the Awami League, warning that such restrictions could undermine democratic rights and political fairness.

The rights bodies appealed to the Interim Government to "refrain from political party bans that would undermine a return to a genuine multi-party democracy and effectively disenfranchise a large part of the Bangladeshi electorate."

The report mentioned that it is not just the Awami League facing the threat of exclusion. Since the fall of the Awami League government led by Hasina, calls to ban Bangladesh's Jatiya Party have intensified, fueling concerns of a broader crackdown on political pluralism.

'While not officially banned, the Jatiya Party was excluded from the interim government's year-long reform talks. The National Citizen Party (NCP), formed by some leaders of the 2024 uprising, has made banning the Jatiya Party one of its demands,' the DW report added

Shamim Haider Patwary, the Secretary General of the Jatiya Party, warned that such a mindset poses a grave risk to the country's democratic progress.

'Excluding the Jatiya Party from all discussions sends a clear message to the administration that this party's rights do not need to be protected. This is going to be a rigged vote. Jatiya Party is being treated as an 'almost-banned' party. This is not a good sign,' Patwary said in an interview with DW.

/IANS