STAFF CORRESPONDENT

We step into the new year with hope and optimism as new beginnings are wont to be, the national election on the horizon is all the more reason to look ahead to 2026. The very possibility of being able to practise one’s franchise, that prized entitlement of the sovereign citizen, feels all the more precious since many had been robbed of it for long.

Following in the wake of a tumultuous uprising the previous year, 2025 had started with high expectations. The year that had begun with possibilities and potential also turned out to be one of frustration and disappointment. It was a year of quite resilience for households but also a year of recalibration for the economy. Overall, the year has been one where Bangladesh was in transit. Having freed itself from the clutches of an increasingly despotic regime, the nation prepared -- sometimes with apprehension and sometimes with affirmation -- for the transition to democracy in 2026.

Not quite comparable to the July uprising and its aftermath, 2025 had its own ups and downs. Even as we bid farewell to 2025 and usher in a new year, it coincides with the beginning of a new chapter in the political landscape. We welcome the new year having bid farewell to Khaleda Zia, who had been a fixture of Bangladesh’s politics, a force for democracy. Her son, Tarique Rahman, had returned to Bangladesh only a few days before, after 17 years in exile.

It was also the year when Khaleda’s arch rival who had tormented her for much of the 16 years that Awami League was at the helm, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity in Dhaka. And although Awami League’s activities have been prohibited, the outfit has become a pariah in a land it ruled with absolute authority for three terms.

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