Sheikh Hasina once fought for democracy in Bangladesh. Her critics say she now threatens it

abcnews.go.com:

The elections in Bangladesh are all about one person: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is facing a general election Sunday, a vote she is all but certain to win. Critics say it could further tighten her grip on power after a 15-year-rule that turned a politician who once fought for democratic freedoms into an increasingly autocratic leader.

Hasina's main rival, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, is boycotting the polls, claiming her government cannot ensure a fair vote, and making it increasingly likely the 76-year-old prime minister will secure her fourth consecutive and fifth overall term in office.

Her supporters say Hasina — the longest-serving leader in Bangladesh's history — and her Awami League have given them a country with a growing industry and humming development projects. The stability has staved off military coups that have shaken the young, predominantly Muslim nation strategically located between India and Myanmar.

But Hasina's political life, like her country, began with violence. On Aug. 15, 1975, a group of military officers behind a coup assassinated her father, Sheikh Mujib Rahman, the first leader of independent Bangladesh.

Some say the brutal act, which also killed nearly her entire family, pushed her to consolidate unprecedented power and motivated her throughout her career in politics.

“Hasina has one very powerful quality as a politician — and that is to weaponize trauma,” said Avinash Paliwal, a senior lecturer specializing in South Asian strategic affairs at SOAS University of London.

An associate who worked closely with Hasina says her ambition was to create the country envisioned by her father, who led the new nation after its