The Awami League leaders have trashed a study by Bertelsmann Stiftung that dubbed Bangladesh an autocracy which “no longer met the minimum standards of democracy,” saying it is a conspiracy to tarnish the country’s image.
They also questioned the study’s sourcing and its timing, which came just after the country’s graduation from a least developed country.
Senior party leaders have accused the BNP and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami of paying lobbyists to smear Bangladesh’s image. They allege that a group of intellectuals is always trying to paint Bangladesh as a failed state.
Bangladesh’s democratic standard, they claim, is far better than many western countries.
The report, conducted between February 2015 and January 2017, says that five countries, including Bangladesh, did no longer meet minimum standards of democracy.
“These five new autocracies have crossed a threshold that the defective democracies of Honduras, Hungary, Moldova, Niger, the Philippines and Turkey are nearing, though to varying degrees,” says the study.
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Awami League Presidium Member Abdul Matin Khasru called the study baseless. “Bangladesh is a 100% democratic country,” he said. “There’s no option to question its standards.”
He said the incumbent Awami League-led government and the parliamentarians were elected by voters. Matin, a former minister, accused Bertelsmann of choosing “wrong sources.”
“Maybe the Germany-based think tank collected information from wrong sources who had no connection to Bangladesh or from anti-Bangladesh and anti-Awami League people,” he added.
Awami League Organizing Secretary Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel claimed that Bangladesh’s democratic standard is “far better than the US or any other western country” but the world lobby, bribed by Jamaat, was trying to tarnish Bangladesh’s image.
“After [war criminal] Mir Quasem’s punishment, Jamaat gave a huge amount of money to international lobbyist groups. Now they are working against Bangladesh and the Awami League,” he claimed. “I think the Jamaat and [its ally] BNP are behind this study.”
Awami League Executive Member Iqbal Hossain Apu concurred, claiming that the people of Bangladesh enjoyed better democratic rights than many other developed countries.
“The Awami League and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina are working to build a developed Bangladesh but some cliques are trying to tarnish the country’s image,” he alleged, urging all not to pay heed to the “baseless and partial” study.
Bertelsmann Stiftung’s study claimed that the quality of governance and democracy worldwide was at its lowest in 12 years. It estimated around 3.3 billion people were living under autocracy and 4.2 billion in democracies.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
