Bangladesh Prime Minister and ruling Awami League president Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday launched her party’s poll manifesto, pledging to build a “Smart Bangladesh” if elected for a fourth consecutive term in the January 7 general elections, being boycotted by the main Opposition BNP.

“Come; once again allow us to serve you by voting for the ‘boat’, the election symbol of the Awami League,” Hasina, along with senior party leaders and sympathisers, said while unveiling her party’s poll manifesto in a crowded press conference.

“You vote for us; we will give you development, peace, and prosperity,” Hasina, 76, said, adding that her party does not believe in rhetoric, but implements whatever it promises.

The Awami League coined “Smart Bangladesh: Development is visible, now employment will enhance” as the theme for the manifesto, setting 11 priorities for building a modern, technology-oriented country, and pledges to modernise the healthcare sector with a “universal health system”.

“In the 2008 election manifesto, we announced Vision 2021, which was a charter of change. We successfully ran the country after overcoming hundreds of hurdles by winning the 2014 and 2018 elections,” Hasina said.

Meanwhile, ailing former Premier Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is carrying out an anti-election street campaign, calling for intermittent strikes and transport blockades, saying no election under the incumbent government would be fair or neutral.

The BNP has also called for civil disobedience against the Hasina-led dispensation, urging people not to pay taxes and utility bills to press its demand for a non-party interim government for election oversight by amending the country’s Constitution.

The BNP is boycotting the election after its demand for an interim non-party neutral government to organise the voting was rejected by the government. The party had boycotted the 2014 election but took part in the 2018 polls, which party leaders later said was a mistake alleging that the voting was marred with widespread rigging and intimidation.

Launching the manifesto, Hasina criticised the Opposition, saying, “Whenever the election comes, an anti-liberation, anti-Bangladesh, and anti-development circle becomes active with a leap of conspiracy.”

She said ahead of the polls every time, the Opposition appeared in the political landscape to grab the state power through back doors and “if unsuccessful, they jump on the people in the spirit of revenge”. “They want to intimidate the public through arson, vehicle burning, bombing, sabotage, or terrorist activities. This time was no exception,” Hasina said.

Since October 29, the BNP has been holding nationwide strikes. According to a media tally, 11 died, 386 vehicles were torched, and 4 trains derailed.