Bangladesh will have a new leader for the first time in over a decade. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned on Monday, fleeing the country by helicopter. The head of the Bangladesh Army, Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, announced he would form an interim government, to be led by Nobel Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, in what he described as a "critical time for our country."
Hasina's resignation comes after weeks of student antigovernment protests, sparked by anger over a new quota system for civil service jobs. Hasina ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and was often described as an authoritarian. So what will her ouster mean for Bangladesh?
What did the commentators say?
Hasina's political longevity "relied on tacit backing from the army and increasing oppression," and "until last month, it looked as if Sheikh Hasina's formula for maintaining power still worked," said The Economist. But once the protests started, Hasina was "faced with the prospect of inflicting large-scale bloodshed" to defend her "decaying regime" and "concluded that her position was untenable." The question now becomes "whether, after a period of caretaker military rule, a credible democratic system can be rebuilt."
The Bangladesh military has a history of meddling in politics and until recently supported Hasina's political party. This means the "fall of Hasina is only the first step in what will no doubt be a bitter reconciliation process," Ali Riaz, a politics and government professor at Illinois State University, said to Time. "Distrust of the security services, military, courts and civil service runs deep across society."
Religious clashes could also hinder any democratic shift. With Hasina ousted, there's a "power vacuum" and "nobody to implement law and order," Debapriya Bhattacharya, an economist at the Center for Policy Dialogue in Dhaka, said to the BBC. "The new government will need to protect religious minorities."
What next?
The army has "asked the president, who holds a ceremonial role, to form a new government," but Bangladesh's military has a "history of staging coups and countercoups," said The New York Times. However, the military has "taken a less overt role in public affairs" in recent years.
The president of Bangladesh dissolved the country's parliament a day after Hasina's departure. This paves the way for new national elections. Bangladesh had an "imaginary election in the past. Now we need a real election," interim government leader Yunus said to The Washington Post. | 
