Awami League

The Bangladesh Awami League (Bengali: বাংলাদেশ আওয়ামী লীগ, lit. 'Bangladesh People's League'), simply known as Awami League (Bengali: [awɐmiliːg]), is one of the major political parties in Bangladesh. The oldest existing political party in the country, the party played a large role in achieving Bangladeshi independence both before and after the Bangladesh Liberation War. It is also one of the two most dominant parties in the country, along with its archrival Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Throughout its tenure as the ruling party from January 6, 2009 to August 5, 2024, it has been consistently described as authoritarian and dictatorial. The East Pakistan Awami Muslim League was founded in Dhaka, the capital of the Pakistani province of East Bengal, in 1949 by Bengali nationalists Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, Yar Mohammad Khan and Shamsul Huq, and joined later by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy who went on to become Prime Minister of Pakistan. It was established as the Bengali alternative to the domination of the Muslim League in Pakistan and over centralisation of the government. The party quickly gained a massive popular support in East Bengal, later named East Pakistan, and eventually led the forces of Bengali nationalism in the struggle against West Pakistan's military and political establishment. The party under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, led the struggle for independence, first through massive populist and civil disobedience movements, such as the Six Point Movement and 1971 Non-Cooperation Movement, and then during the Bangladesh Liberation War. After the emergence of independent Bangladesh, the Awami League won the first general elections in 1973 but was overthrown in 1975 after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The party was forced by subsequent military regimes onto the political sidelines, and many of its senior leaders and activists were executed or jailed. After the restoration of democracy in 1990, the Awami League emerged as one of the principal players of Bangladeshi politics. Since 2009, when the Awami League came to power, Bangladesh experienced democratic backsliding. It was continuously in power between 2009 and 2024, when it was finally overthrown with the students'–people's revolution. Amongst the leaders of the Awami League, five have become the President of Bangladesh, four have become the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and one became the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, has headed the party since 1981.