There can be no doubt that not only did the Awami League (AL) leader Sheikh Hasina as prime minister accomplish the difficult task of completing the full term of office, 1996-2001, but brought the country one step further towards consolidating the democratic political process by calling for elections and putting in place the constitutionally mandated caretaker government to oversee them. Not even the fact that for most of these years the opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP) had stayed out of parliament choosing to pursue politics outside it and often sparking violence can take away that achievement of Hasina. But today after the election, in which her party has been all but routed, if Hasina decides to reject the electoral verdict and keep her promise of boycotting parliament and resorting to extra-parliamentary means of protest, then she will have put roadblocks on the way to achieving the stability so desperately needed to get on with normal governance and law-making.
