SUMMARY
The Awami League is a mainstream left-wing political party in Bangladesh, being one of the two largest parties in Bangladesh, together with BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party). The party was formed on 23 June 1949 by Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, Shamsul Haq and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, initially as a movement aiming to fight West Pakistan’s domination over East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The party played a significant role in the Independence of Bangladesh – the majority won by the Awami league during the 1970 Pakistani General Elections being a trigger for the war of independence. The party is secular in nature, officially professing socialism and moderate nationalism as its main ideology.
One main feature in the activity of the party is its tendency to call for large-scale, highly violent protests, strikes and rallies, sometimes shutting down the entire country by blocking transportation networks or crippling industrial activity. These protests, known as ‘hartals’, played a significant role in the process of restoring democracy in 1991. However, hartals, used as tools for electoral campaigning, had the unwanted effect of creating a climate of violence that surrounds each Bangladeshi election. Further, while the party platform is moderate, its campaigning message is not, focusing typically on virulent attacks against opponents and on highly populist platforms. Attacks typically include references to large-scale incompetence and corruption by BNP, as well as references to BNP’s supposed plan to Islamize and ‘Talibanize’ the country.
The leader of the Awami League, since 1981, is Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, one of the founders and leaders of the party. Although the party is not always directly responsible for the planning and execution of electoral violence as this is often regarded a result of the violent campaigning done by the party, it is widely considered responsible in the violent 2024 Bangladesh Quota Reform Movement and Anti-discrimination Students Movement in July and August of that year where the party clashed with opponents of Hasina.
Supporters of Awami League have been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.
