Charlotte Gallagher

offer prayers and to pray for the soul of Khalida Zia, who is the former leader of the party, the mother of Tariq Rahman.

She died late last year of an illness.

Now, for Tariq Rahman, this is an incredible turn of fortunes because for 17 years he was in self-imposed exile in London.

He went there because he was arrested, jailed and allegedly tortured on charges of corruption.

He says those charges were politically motivated and brought against him by Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League party.

And now he's back and he is going to be the next prime minister of Bangladesh.

At their election office, I spoke to the party's main spokesman, Mahdi Amin.

The young people of your country came out in an uprising.

What they want the most is democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of expression.

Are you guaranteeing them that?

I know you're keen to say that this is a free, fair and credible election but doesn't the Awami League being banned from this election cast a shadow on its credibility?

Isn't Bangladesh just caught in this cycle and it's not breaking out of it?

The party has made tall promises and the last time the BNP was in power, which was around two decades ago, its tenure was marred by violence and allegations of corruption and human rights violations.

And this time it will be answerable to especially the young people of the country who took to the streets and it's because of that uprising that the BNP has had a chance to contest and win this election.

And among them, there is a lot of anticipation, expectation and hope for change.

We want them to deliver their promises to the country and the citizens.

And we want them to give rights to women and the marginalized people of all sorts.

The food price should come down so that everyone can have their food properly.

There are big challenges that lie ahead.

Key among them, of course, ensuring that there is democracy, that there are freedoms, that people have their rights, but also that people have jobs, that inflation, particularly food prices, are brought down.