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Bangladesh FM says not bothered by US visa curbs, promises free elections

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Bangladesh FM says not bothered by US visa curbs, promises free elections

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Bangladesh’s foreign minister has said his country was not “bothered” by the US visa curbs on unnamed Dhaka officials for undermining the election process as part of Washington’s push for free and fair general elections slated to be held early next year.

“The US is a democracy, so are we,” AK Abdul Momen told Al Jazeera on Saturday.

“As a global power, they, of course, can exercise power over others but we are not bothered because we know how to hold an acceptable election,” he said, echoing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s assertion that her government is capable of conducting free and fair elections.

The US Department of State on Thursday announced to impose visa restrictions on Bangladeshi individuals “responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic election process in Bangladesh”.

A statement issued by the State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller mentioned “these individuals include members of law enforcement, the ruling party, and the political opposition” and “their immediate family may be found ineligible for entry into the United States.”

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Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asserted that her government is capable of conducting free and fair elections. [File: Anupam Nath/AP Photo]

The State Department did not release any names as the “[visa]records are confidential under US law,” Bryan Schiller, US Embassy spokesperson in Bangladesh told the local media.

The visa restrictions come nearly four months after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned of curbs, as Washington has expressed support for “free, fair and peaceful national elections” in the South Asian nation of 160 million people.

Back then, Bangladesh’s foreign ministry had assured free and fair elections. However, the Hasina government has continued to target political opposition and activists, including the jailing of two leading human rights activists on September 14.

The last two national elections – 2014 and 2018 – were marred by vote-rigging charges and opposition boycott. The Awami League (AL) party of Prime Minister Hasina won both the elections. It has denied the elections were rigged.

The US State Department, moreover, warned that additional persons found to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic election process in Bangladesh may also be found ineligible for US visas in the future.

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Minister Momen meanwhile, said his party’s “rank and files” are not worried about the visa sanctions as most of them want to stay in this “prospering country”.

“Our voters are also not bothered because they probably are not thinking of going to the US at all.”

‘Targeted sanctions’

Tensions surrounding the upcoming national election, scheduled to be held in January next year, have already reached a boiling point, with the main opposition – the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) – and its allies, staging regular street protests.

They are demanding the installation of a neutral caretaker government to conduct the elections. However, the provision of caretaker government was nullified in 2011 by the Supreme Court. The opposition has said the court ruling was influenced by the governing Awami League, which has been in power since 2008. A caretaker administration oversaw the 2008 election.

Supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) attack armed vehicles of police at Shonir Akhra area
The opposition led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party has organised several street protests in recent months demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Hasina and the formation of a caretaker government. [File: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]

Western powers, including the US and the European Union – the two main destinations of Bangladesh’s multibillion-dollar garment export – have repeatedly expressed concern about free and fair elections and rights violations under the current government.

Experts have argued that the latest visa sanction by the US is just a reflection of their concerns. Last year, Washington slapped sanctions on notorious Bangladesh paramilitary forces – Rapid Action Battalion – for extrajudicial killings. Dhaka has also been not invited to the two editions of the high-profile Summit for Democracy organised by President Joe Biden’s administration.

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Former Bangladesh ambassador to the US, Humayun Kabir, said the visa curb is to ensure a free and fair election.

“The fact is, those who are actually impeding the fair election process should be worried as the US government, of course, did proper groundwork before imposing these sanctions,” he told Al Jazeera.

US-based Bangladesh-American geopolitical analyst Shafquat Rabbee told Al Jazeera that given the high-voltage engagement and communications coming from the US government regarding Bangladesh’s upcoming election, “It is certain that the US has made a determination rather than trying to preserve Bangladesh’s democracy, at least nominally”.

Rabbee believed, that as elections remain extremely popular in Bangladesh, the incremental cost of trying to preserve that nominally democratic culture for the US is not much. “So the US is trying using less invasive approaches like targeted sanctions,” he said.

He also said it is highly likely the US will bring more targeted sanctions, next time perhaps on Bangladesh’s business community and judiciary if the country’s democratic backsliding continues.

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Opposition parties have welcomed the US step, with Rumeen Farhana, a former member of parliament from the main opposition BNP, saying that “the whole world has seen how [Awami League] had used every bit of state machinery, including bureaucracy, law enforcement and judiciary to steal elections”.

“Not once, twice,” she said.

The international affairs secretary of the ruling Awami League party, however, said his party was not concerned by the visa curbs.

Shammi Ahmed told Al Jazeera that the US or other global powers are “very interested” to see a “fair election” in Bangladesh as the country “is no longer a basket case, rather an emerging economic power”.

“And we have achieved this under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina,” Ahmed said.

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“We have trust in our own people and we trust in elections. The ballot paper will decide our fate, not global powers,” she said.

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Trump's FDA Pick Is Surgeon and Writer Martin Makary

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Trump's FDA Pick Is Surgeon and Writer Martin Makary
By Michael Erman (Reuters) – U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has nominated surgeon and writer Martin Makary to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the world’s most influential drug regulator with a more than $7 billion budget. The FDA regulates human and veterinary drugs, medical devices …
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Israel moves towards ceasefire deal with Hezbollah: reports

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Israel moves towards ceasefire deal with Hezbollah: reports

Israel is reportedly moving towards a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah in Lebanon after nearly a year of fighting escalated into an all-out war in September. 

Israeli media outlets including YNET and Haaretz have reported that Israel has tentatively agreed to a U.S.-backed proposal for a ceasefire. No final deal has been reached, according to the reports. 

Journalists take pictures of a building hit direct by a rocket fired from Lebanon in Haifa, Israel, Sunday Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Lebanon and the militia group Hezbollah reportedly agreed to the deal last week but both sides need to give the final okay before it can materialize. 

The reported ceasefire deal comes after Hezbollah launched one of its largest rocket attacks on Israel in exchange for Israeli forces striking Hezbollah command centers in Beirut. 

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This is a developing story. Check back for updates. 

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Yamandu Orsi wins Uruguay’s run-off presidential election

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Yamandu Orsi wins Uruguay’s run-off presidential election

Yamandu Orsi, the candidate for the left-wing Broad Front coalition, is projected to emerge victorious in Uruguay’s run-off election for the presidency.

He bested Alvaro Delgado of the ruling National Party to win the tightly fought race, though public opinion polls showed the two candidates in a dead heat in the lead-up to Sunday’s vote.

Orsi’s supporters took to the streets in the capital of Montevideo, as the official results started to show the former mayor and history teacher surging ahead.

Many waved the party banner: a red, blue and white striped flag with the initials FA for “Frente Amplio”, which translates to “Broad Front”.

“Joy will return for the majority,” the coalition posted on social media as Orsi approached victory. “Cheers, people of Uruguay.”

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Supporters of Yamandu Orsi celebrate early results after polls closed in Montevideo, Uruguay, on November 24 [Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo]

Orsi’s win restores the Broad Front to power in the small South American country, sandwiched on the Atlantic coast between Brazil and Argentina.

For 15 years, from 2005 to 2020, the Broad Front had held Uruguay’s executive office, with the presidencies of Jose Mujica and Tabare Vazquez, the latter of whom won two non-consecutive, five-year terms.

But that winning streak came to an end in the 2019 election, with the victory of current President Luis Lacalle Pou, who led a coalition of right-leaning parties.

Under Uruguay law, however, a president cannot run for consecutive terms. Lacalle Pou was therefore not a candidate in the 2024 race.

Running in his stead was Delgado, a former veterinarian and Congress member who served as a political appointee in Lacalle Pou’s government from 2020 to 2023.

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Even before the official results were announced on Sunday, Delgado had conceded, acknowledging Orsi’s victory was imminent.

“Today, the Uruguayans have defined who will hold the presidency of the republic. And I want to send here, with all these actors of the coalition, a big hug and a greeting to Yamandu Orsi,” Delgado said in a speech as he clutched a large Uruguayan flag in his hand.

He called on his supporters to “respect the sovereign decisions” of the electorate, while striking a note of defiance.

“It’s one thing to lose an election, and another to be defeated. We are not defeated,” he said, pledging that his right-wing coalition was “here to stay”.

The outgoing president, Lacalle Pou, also reached out to Orsi to acknowledge the Broad Front’s victory.

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“I called [Yamandu Orsi] to congratulate him as president-elect of our country and to put myself at his service and begin the transition as soon as I deem it pertinent,” Lacalle Pou wrote on social media.

Supporters hold aloft multiple cut-outs of Yamandu Orsi's face.
Supporters hold cutouts of Yamandu Orsi’s face in Montevideo, Uruguay, on November 24 [Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo]

Orsi had been considered the frontrunner in the lead-up to the first round of the elections.

Originally from Canelones, a coastal regional in the south of Uruguay, Orsi began his career locally as a history teacher, activist and secretary-general of the department’s government. In 2015, he successfully ran to be mayor of Canelones and won re-election in 2020.

In the 2024 presidential race, Orsi – like virtually all the candidates on the campaign trail – pledged to bolster Uruguay’s economy. He called for salary increases, particularly for low-wage workers, to grow their “purchasing power”.

He also called for greater early childhood education and employment programmes for young adults. According to a United Nations report earlier this year, nearly 25 percent of Uruguay’s children live in poverty.

But the economy was not the only issue at the forefront of voters’ minds. In a June survey from the communications firm Nomade, the largest share of respondents – 29 percent – identified “insecurity” as Uruguay’s “principal problem”.

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That dwarfed the second-highest ranked topic: “Unemployment” was only picked by 15 percent of respondents.

As part of his platform, Orsi pledged to increase the police force and strengthen Uruguay’s borders, including through the installation of more security cameras.

As he campaigned, Orsi enjoyed the support of former President Mujica, a former rebel fighter who survived torture under Uruguay’s military dictatorship in the 1970s and ’80s.

Mujica remains a popular figure on Uruguay’s left, best known for his humble living arrangements that once earned him the moniker of the “world’s poorest president”.

A dog walks through a Montevideo street dressed in an Uruguay flag.
Supporters of Yamandu Orsi, candidate for the Broad Front, walk a dog decorated with the party’s colours in Montevideo, Uruguay, on Sunday [Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo]

In the first round of voting, on October 27, Orsi came out on top, with 44 percent of the vote to Delgado’s 27 percent. But his total was far short of the 50 percent he needed to win the election outright, thereby triggering a run-off.

The race got tighter from there forward. Only two candidates progressed to the run-off – Delgado and Orsi – and Delgado picked up support from voters who had backed former Colorado Party candidate Andres Ojeda, a fellow conservative who was knocked out in the first round.

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Nevertheless, Orsi quickly pulled ahead after the polls closed for the run-off election on Sunday.

“The horizon is brightening,” Orsi said in his victory speech. “The country of freedom, equality and also fraternity triumphs once again.”

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