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Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina returned to power after a landslide victory in general elections on Monday. The alliance of Hasina’s Awami League party with the Jatiya Party of General Hussain Muhammad Ershad and a few leftist parties bagged 262 seats, winning a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

The voting heralded the return of democracy after two years of emergency rule under a military-controlled regime. Voting for the country’s 300-seat Parliament was described as mostly free and fair. However, Hasina's bitter rival, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, rejected the results as fraudulent. Her alliance, led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, secured a paltry 32 seats compared to the two-thirds majority it enjoyed in the last Parliament.

Many political analysts had predicted the Awami League to win, although the landslide victory has surprised the nation.

It seems that the people of Bangladesh, who get disheartened with every regime, were lured by the attractive pledges in the Awami League’s election platform. For example, the party promised a supply of clean drinking water for the entire population of 150 million by 2011, and food sufficiency by 2013. The promise of food and water security was a big draw to ordinary poor citizens, hit by high food prices during emergency rule.

The Awami League also promised to increase electricity production to boost capacity, which was tasty bait for voters. Massive corruption in the energy sector has robbed households as well as businesses of adequate power supplies and created public dissatisfaction.

Besides, the Awami League also promised accommodation for the entire population by 2015. For the 47 percent of the population who live in extreme poverty, most of whom are homeless, this is a dream come true. Hasina made many other similar promises.

Many people have praised the Awami League’s election strategy and are happy with the election results, while long voter queues and a cordial, violence-free atmosphere at polling stations impressed international observers.

Media reports, however, quoted losing candidates and voters who complained of manipulation, abuse of power and inconsistencies in the polling system across the country. This has cast a cloud of doubt on the credibility of a free and fair election as claimed.

Several visual reports from voter areas showed people being refused voting rights, as their names were not included in the official voter lists. Many others said they were told to go to other polling stations by election officials, although moving around various polling booths did little to bring back their voting rights.

And, like those who could not vote as their names were not registered on official electoral rolls, the chairman of the University Grant Commission, Professor Nazrul Islam, and former law minister Barrister Moudud Ahmed also could not find their names on the official voter list. They too could not vote.

Many voters also allege that polling officials insisted that they vote for the Awami League. These instances expose the Election Commission's failure to ensure people's right to vote.

According to political observers, the Awami League had openly assured the present military-controlled government, who is seeking a safe exit, that it would validate its past actions during emergency rule, if voted to power. Unlike its rivals, Awami League leaders, during their election campaign, did not criticize any of the military-controlled government’s unlawful acts committed during emergency rule.

Besides, the actions and inactions of the government, the Election Commission and the Anti-Corruption Commission during the state of emergency were clear reminders of which party they preferred to rule the country.

For instance, a pro-Awami League businessman, Noor Ali, lodged an extortion case against Sheikh Hasina with the Tejgaon police station of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police on June 13, 2007. Noor alleged that he handed over 32 million takas (US$464,441) in 12 bank drafts to Hasina at Ganabhaban, the official residence of the prime minister, between June 8, 1997 and May 20, 1999. He also alleged that 18 million takas (US$261,248) were paid to Hasina through her cousin Sheikh Helal at different times. Hasina was the prime minister during the time.

As the case dragged on in 2008, both the High Court Division and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh rejected Sheikh Hasina’s bail petitions on Sept. 29 and Oct. 30.

On Nov. 5, the investigating officer of the case, Inspector Lutfor Rahman Khan of the Tejgaon police station, submitted a report discharging Sheikh Hasina along with her cousin Sheikh Helal and his wife Rupa Chowdhury. The police officer claimed in his report that the accusations were a "factual error.”

Accordingly, the magistrate followed the request of the police on the same date. The prosecution did not appeal for any further investigation, but expressed "no confidence" in the police report, which was beyond the common practice in the judicial arena of Bangladesh.

There are instances where diplomatic missions of Bangladesh in the United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Canada and Finland provided Hasina with VIP service and treatment, although she had no official government status. When paroled for medical treatment to the United States, she was provided the best service, reserved only for government officials, although at the time she was a detainee and not a government official.

In the midst of these rather complex and shocking realities, the ordinary Bangladeshis can only hope for freedom from the clutches of the military-controlled government. They can only hope for a new process of democratization in the country.

Now people expect political decisions to be taken in Parliament instead of forcing politicians to take decisions by blocking roads and streets and shutting down the nation under the guise of countrywide strikes, as was the case in the past.

A stable democratic process may heal the wounds inflicted on the nation by past regimes. Democracy should inspire the nation to regain its lost past and look forward to stability and prosperity in the future.

The newly elected government should learn from previous experiences and lead the nation toward progress by establishing the rule of law and encouraging economic development.

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(Rater Zonaki is the pseudonym of a human rights defender based in Hong Kong working at the Asian Human Rights Commission. He is a Bangladeshi national with a degree in literature from a university in Dhaka. He began his career as a journalist in 1990 and engaged in human rights activism at the grassroots level in his country for more than a decade. He also worked as an editor for publications on human rights and socio-cultural issues and contributed to other similar publications.)