view on Bangladesh’s phoney election: a bad day for democracy

News Snapshot:

Sheikh Hasina Wazed has brought the best of times and the worst of times to Bangladesh. In her 15 years of consecutive rule as prime minister, extreme poverty rates have halved and per-capita GDP has grown by more than 300%. This impressive performance has been undermined by the emergence of a one‑party state, a process accelerated by anti‑government protests against escalating prices last year. Human Rights Watch warned in November that opposition leaders and supporters were being jailed, and even killed, ahead of the general elections that took place last weekend. With the main opposition party – the Bangladesh Nationalist...