Now Hossain, 82, is helming a popular opposition against Hasina that aims to prevent his former Awami League party from maintaining its hold on Bangladesh in Sunday’s parliamentary elections. “There should be a very decisive victory for the opposition if it’s free and fair,” Hossain said in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press. Although Zia is in solitary confinement in a colonial-era jail, she is not alone: More than 15,000 opposition party activists and critics have been arrested since November, the vice chairman of Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party said Saturday. Hossain supported Hasina as part of a grand coalition in 2008 elections, when the Awami League and its allies secured 270 of the 300 seats in Bangladesh’s Parliament. Hossain, too, said he is telling his supporters to stay at voting centres — even at the risk of violence.

Source: National Post December 29, 2018 16:41 UTC