Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has to safeguard her country's hard fought economic gains and manage ties with the United States as she returns for a fifth term, said analysts.
The ruling Awami League won 222 of the 300 elected seats in the Jatiya Sangsad, or Parliament, while independent candidates secured 63 seats following the Jan 7 elections, which saw a 40 per cent voter turnout, according to the Election Commission.
Main opposition parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), had boycotted the polls, saying that the elections were not free and fair after their demand for a neutral caretaker government to oversee the polls was dismissed by the ruling party as "unconstitutional".
In spite of her consolidating power, the 76-year-old Bangladeshi leader, who is the longest-serving female leader in the world, now faces a challenging fifth term, said analysts, with the topmost challenge to fix pressure points in the economy.
Bangladesh, which is seen as an economic success story, has registered an average 7 per cent gross domestic product growth over the last few years, helping bring scores out of poverty.
Still, the Ukraine war, coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic, is seen to have taken a toll on Bangladesh's economy.
Inflation touched around 9.5 per cent in November, even as foreign exchange remittances have dropped from a record US$48 billion (S$63.9 billion) in August 2021 to a little over US$20 billion in 2023.
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