The Tenacity of hope

The tenacity of hope
Dec 30th 2008 DHAKA From The Economist print edition
Bangladesh enjoys a pretty clean election and a decisive result AFP
IT WENT better than anyone dared hope. On December 29th Bangladesh held its first general election for seven years. It was well-attended, with a 70% turnout, well-organised, largely peaceful and, despite some vote-buying and other malpractice, far cleaner than its predecessors. It produced an astonishing, massive landslide for the alliance led by the Awami League of Sheikh Hasina Wajed (pictured above), prime minister from 1996-2001, and daughter of the country’s murdered independence leader........................

Unguided democracy

Unguided democracy

Jan 7th 2009 From Economist.com
Hardy political perennials in Thailand and Bangladesh
THE swearing-in this week of Sheikh Hasina Wajed as Bangladesh’s prime minister has brought national celebration. There is much to cheer: the return of democratic rule after two years of army-installed technocracy; a successful election, largely free of the violence, intimidation and massive vote-buying that marked its predecessors; the toppling of the unpopular regime of Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which preceded the army’s interregnum; and the rout of Mrs Zia’s Islamist allies, and hence, it is hoped, of the political wings of Islamist extremism..................