Bangladesh comes full circle

The dramatic and overnight turnaround for the people of Bangladesh, from being an army-backed government to a completely civilian one, is now complete.

Led by Shaikh Hasina, who has a strong political pedigree as well as an affinity for notoriety, the Awami League has achieved an almost embarrassing result in its quest to establish a democratic government in Bangladesh. The elections were peaceful and boasted high voter turnout.

The result itself is a change for a country that has now managed to distance itself from the diktats of fundamentalists. The fact that the polls were largely incident free and that for the first time a new photo- based voter list was introduced is a case in point. Threats to crack down on corruption and propping up the plight of the people by combating poverty, which has been a cause for terrorist activity, have now been put high on the agenda.

Hasina wants to usher in an era of the "digital Bangladesh" and, blessed with a huge majority in parliament, there is little anyone can do to oppose these ambitions. All she needs to do now is determine the role of the army by realising the interests of the people.