Bangladesh Nationalist Party - The 2007–2008 Period

The 2007–2008 Period

After Khaleda Zia was detained by the caretaker government in 2007, some party members chose former finance minister Saifur Rahman as chairman and former water resources minister Major (retired) Hafizuddin Ahmed as secretary general to lead the party; Zia's supporters refused to recognize these choices. The Bangladesh Election Commission subsequently invited Hafizuddin's faction, rather than Khaleda Zia's, to participate in talks, effectively recognizing the former as the legitimate BNP. Khaleda Zia challenged this in court, but her appeal was rejected on 10 April 2008. However, by the end of August, the commission reversed its position, stating that the decision to send Hafizuddin an invitation was a mistake. They admitted that the commission's behavior toward the party had been biased. The conflict between some parts of the BNP and the Hafizuddin/Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan-led faction took place after a large procession during the party's Joint General Secretary Tarique Rahman's release on 3 September 2008. Some factional leaders were chased and heckled by supporters in front of Tarique's hospital. Since then, the faction has remained silent and appears inactive. Before this, another defeat of a reformist faction took place after one of the recognized and leading reformists, Saifur Rahman, denied being a reformist and made his position very clear under the leadership of Khaleda Zia.

The party faced a landslide defeat at the hands of the Bangladesh Awami League in the 2008 Bangladesh general election, in which the 4-party alliance led by BNP won only 32 seats out of 299 constituencies, of which the BNP alone got 29. Although the BNP's share of electoral votes had steadily increased in the past – it got 30% in 1991, 33% in 1996 and 40% in 2001 – the 2008 election brought a reversal of fortunes with only 33% of votes. Although concrete evidence has yet to be presented, the Bangladesh media speculated that young first time voters, who comprised 31% of the entire electorate that year, overwhelmingly rejected the BNP because of its perceived association with corrupt businessmen, Islamic fundamentalists, and war criminals.