PM asks ruling Awami League to get ready for a 'tough' parliamentary election

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ordered the leaders and activists of the Awami League to start the groundwork for the next parliamentary elections.

In a clear hint to the negative impact of incumbency factors, the AL chief says that the “path will be 'tougher than before' as the party was in power for the last eight years.”

Hasina met the leaders of the ruling party and its affiliates at her political office in Dhanmondi Saturday afternoon for the first time after she was re-elected president of the party in October last year.

She also ordered the party's Advisory Council to form separate field-based cells to gather information to prepare the election manifesto.

Reminding the leaders of the party and its affiliates that the government is celebrating eighth year in power, the prime minister said, "We'll have to take preparations for the election from now."

"We stepped into the fourth year in our second straight term - eight consecutive years. So the path now will be tougher than before. We'll have to finish our jobs, so that the people can live better lives," she said.

She first met the leaders of the party's affiliating bodies and then the members of the Working Committee.

The prime minister expressed satisfaction over fulfilling the electoral pledges made in the manifestos for the 2008 and 2014 elections.

"This is Awami League. We can do what we say. Our politics is for the people," she said.

She said the party already started thinking about the electoral manifesto for the 11th Parliamentary Election.

"We have announced programmes until 2021. Many of those have already been completed," she said.

"Now the aim is to get developed status for Bangladesh by 2041 and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," she added.

She also said she comes to her political office fewer times considering that her journeys create traffic congestions in the city.