Bangladesh has just staged a rare democratic exercise: a parliamentary election and a referendum on constitutional reform on the same day.

What a new government chooses to fund, plan for, or ignore in its first months reveals its level of priority or seriousness about its commitments to the people.

The overwhelming support of voters received by the BNP thrusts upon the new government a special responsibility and a challenge to meet people’s expectations.

On August 5, 2024, we were told that the old order had vanished into the Indian sunrise, and in its place stood a Nobel laureate, handed the impossible task of governing a country that had just been torn apart from within.

Bangladesh passed multiple tests of its democratic credentials through the 13th parliamentary election on February 12.

In its idealised form, an economic system such as capitalism—often known for rewarding productivity, risk-taking, and innovation— is one in which profits follow value creation, competition disciplines excess, and institutions protect exchange.

Imagine a parliament and cabinet with a significant number of competent, capable, and honest women members.

No other South Asian country that has been subjected to reciprocal tariffs has signed such an agreement with the US so far.

The election came after years of severe distrust in the electoral process, questions over legitimacy, and institutional strain, so the poll’s successful conduct has reinforced trust in the process as well as the principle that governments derive authority from the consent of the governed.

Our economy’s overwhelming dependence on garment exports leaves us exposed to global supply chain disruptions, automation threats, trade policy shifts, etc. Tourism offers a useful means of diversification, and it brings foreign currency directly.

Bangladesh remains bound to an analogue collateral regime. Landlessness is not marginal in rural Bangladesh; it is structural.

The interim government’s (IG) disclosure of the assets of advisers on February 10, just days before the scheduled end of its tenure, was not only delayed by 533 days after its commitment to do so, but was also incomplete, flawed, and unfit for purpose.

Large mandates are usually treated as moments of political triumph. In institutional terms, however, they are something else: a change in the conditions under which power operates.

A news report published in The Daily Star early this month highlighted many factory owners’ struggle to access the much-heralded Green Transformation Fund (GTF).

The long-anticipated and widely speculated national election has concluded. Contrary to many predictions, voters delivered a decisive mandate to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Choose cabinet with utmost care, for it may determine success or failure

Bangladesh’s most consequential election, held on Thursday, would change the course of politics in the country.

The 13th national election on Thursday was fair, but a major area of concern in this election was women’s representation.

What stood out immediately about Thursday's election was the peaceful atmosphere.

On Thursday, Bangladesh held an acceptable election after 18 years, one in which participation was not curtailed by the state itself.